


Felled in the Night

by thoughtlessblogger



Series: The Draw [3]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Businessman Harry, Con Artists, Conman Louis, Deception, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Guns, M/M, Minor Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Louis, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-12 01:59:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 47,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5649541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtlessblogger/pseuds/thoughtlessblogger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The lads are working a job, but end up with more than they bargained for in terms of danger and Louis really hates Niall for talking him into including Harry.</p><p>or </p><p>A look into how Louis and Harry's relationship is working three years after the events of <em>Pulling Me Back</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. By The Ones You Think You Love

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, well, I've written a third part. I can't quite seem to let this universe go. I'm really excited about this one and I hope you are too.
> 
> For those of you who don't know this is a sequel to [I Can Feel the Draw](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3767464/chapters/8369389) and [Pulling Me Back](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4855316/chapters/11125940). If you've not read those I suggest you go do that.
> 
> This is shorter than the others and like the previous stories in this series, there's a lot of violence in this so if that's not your cup of tea maybe don't read.
> 
> I'd like to thank everyone who read my previous stories and who are reading this. I can't promise there will be regular updates on this one, but I will try my hardest to update as often as possible.
> 
> As usual all mistakes are my own (I'm pretty sure I've taken a lot of creative liberty with how Interpol works).  
> Comments and kudos are appreciated and if you want I'm on tumblr at [thoughtlessblogger.](http://www.thoughtlessblogger.tumblr.com)
> 
> Thank you and enjoy!

“I fucking hate you,” Louis mutters as he slowly lowers himself down into the room, careful to avoid the security sensors, which are fucking _lasers_ , going in every direction, and it's almost damn near impossible for him to avoid. “Remind me again why you couldn't shut these off.”

He hears Liam sigh. “Because the people who run this place have a set-up that alerts security if someone taps into their system to shut the sensors off, that's why. Even if I could get around _that_ they're alerted when the lasers are shut off, and then they're alerted again when they've been shut off for more than a minute.”

Louis contorts his body to avoid three lasers at once. At least they don't move. If that was the case he'd never be able to pull this off. Stationary lasers he can handle. “You couldn't have gotten someone else to do this?”

“You're the only person I know that's small enough to fit through the beams. Although, I was a bit worried about your arse, but you're doing fine.”

If he weren't suspended in air, surrounded by twenty-five laser beams that will alert The Smithsonian security team of his presence if he came into contact with one, he'd have squawked indignantly at Liam's comment. Instead, he simply says, “You're a horrible person, Liam.”

“You love me.”

“We'll see.”

Liam doesn't respond, which is just as well for Louis. He's within reaching distance of the diamond now and he needs full concentration. The diamond is in a glass case below him. He has to remove the lid, grab the diamond and replace the lid all within twenty seconds before an alarm will sound. It sounded easy when Liam had first mentioned it to him, but Liam had conveniently forgotten to mention that Louis would be suspended in midair while doing this. Not to mention he has to avoid fucking laser sensors.

Diamond heists aren't even Louis's thing, but Liam had insisted that he wanted the Hope Diamond and needed Louis's help. Louis, because he's a damn good friend, agreed to help even though Liam refused to tell him why he wanted the diamond in the first place. He suspects it's for Sophia because he knows Liam did something to piss her off a couple months ago and she's not spoken to him since. She's spoken to Louis plenty of times, though, to complain about Liam. Louis could do without that, but he's a good friend.

Regardless of why Liam wants the diamond, Louis is still hanging in the air about to steal one of the most recognizable and expensive diamonds in the world to help his best mate's love life. 

Carefully, Louis reaches through two lasers and grabs the lid with one hand. He takes a deep breath, steadying himself and pulls it off quickly. With his free hand, he grabs the diamond out of the case. It's not much of a diamond in Louis's opinion and he doesn't understand why anyone would want to go through so much trouble to steal it. It's a nice bluish color, that's about it, but he doesn't have time to admire it. 

He places the lid back on the case and pulls out a black cloth from the inside of his jumpsuit. He wraps the diamond in it and places it back in his pocket.

“Uh, Louis,” Liam says, voice laced with worry. “You're about to have company in about ten seconds.”

“Shit,” Louis mutters, looking up at the ceiling.

He's got to go up one story, avoiding all the lasers in less than ten seconds. Except, if they already know he's here he doesn't need to avoid the lasers, which works out well for him because there's no way he'd be able to do it in less than a minute.

Just as the door is opening, he presses the button on his belt and the wire pulls him back up quickly. He hoists himself up through the hole in the ceiling ignoring the shouts from below. When he's back in the room above the diamond's previous inclosure, he pulls his belt off letting it clank to the ground.

He makes for the door, but freezes when he hears someone jiggling the knob. When the door doesn't open for the person on the other side, there's yelling and the sound of someone trying to break it down.

“Yeah, okay. I can't go out the door.”

“You'll have to go out the window then.”

Louis's eyes widen as he turns to the window. “Liam, I'm three fucking stories up!” He rushes over to it, looking down at the ground below him. There's nothing to break his fall. Normally, he's not opposed to jumping out windows, but there's literally only concrete down there. “This is going to hurt.”

“I'll be waiting in the van,” Liam says, disregarding Louis' concern over his safety.

There's another loud thump at the door and he turns to look at it. Liam's right. The only way out of this is the window. He glances back at the window, wondering how he should go about this. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a wooden chair. Good. He can throw that.

He grabs it, takes a step away from the window and throws the chair as hard as he can. There's a shattering of glass and Louis doesn't have a chance to think about jumping before the door behind him is flying open. 

He leaps out the window and as he's falling to the ground he tries to remember how he should position his body to land, but his mind fails him and he hits the ground feet first and a sharp pain shoots through his ankle. He tumbles over, clutching at his ankle, gasping in pain.

“Fucking hell,” he groans out, writhing on the ground.

“Louis, I know you're in pain, but you need to get out of there.”

As Liam finishes his warning, Louis sees security guards run around the side of the building coming toward him. He pushes himself up, grunting in pain and takes off. With each step, there's pain shooting through his ankle and up his leg, but he ignores it. If he doesn't, he'll surely be caught and that's definitely not something he needs.

He continues running until he sees the spot the van is supposed to be in. It's not there and neither is Liam. Louis throws his arms out while running. “What?” he yells. “Liam, where the hell are you?”

“Relax.”

Louis' nearly run over by a black van, cutting in front of him and stopping. He wrenches open the passenger door and climbs in. Liam's driving away before he's even got the door shut.

They're quiet for a while as Liam speeds away from the museum. They're not being followed, at least Louis doesn't think they're being followed. He's more preoccupied with the pain he's experiencing. He's most likely twisted it badly or he's actually fractured it. He hopes it's just a twist. He can't deal with a fracture right now. He needs to get home and a fracture would only prevent that.

“We're going to have to delay going home,” Liam says eventually.

Louis whips his head over to stare at him. “What?” he asks, blinking rapidly. “Why?”

“They'll have shut down the airport looking for us. And possibly the whole city.”

“They'd shut down the city because a diamond was stolen?”

Liam nods. “It's a city that the president lives in. I don't think they'd take any chances.”

“That's fucking stupid,” he mumbles, sinking into his seat. 

He knows Liam's right, but that doesn't mean he has to be happy about it. He knows Liam well enough to know that if he thinks it's too risky to go home right now he'll think it's too risky to try to contact anyone, which means Louis's going to be in a lot of trouble when he does get home.

Harry's going to fucking _kill_ him. In the three years they've been together Harry hasn't gotten angry over much, but he hates it when Louis doesn't let him know he's going to be late coming home. He does understand that sometimes it's impossible for Louis to contact him, so he lets it go most of the time, but there are times when it's a bigger deal. Like when Harry has a thing he has to go to and he wants Louis there.

When Louis had told Harry he was going on a quick little job with Liam Harry had immediately started pouting because he had a charity thing he was going to and he'd wanted Louis to go with him. Louis had promised him he'd be home in time for it, but that's not going to happen now.

His mind is racing of images of Harry walking around the place, surrounded by rich, snooty people Harry doesn't like at all, hoping to see Louis run through a door at any second. It wouldn't be the first time Louis had done that. In fact, it's happened several times in the course of the last three years. The first time it happened Harry had been irate and relieved to see Louis burst through the doors, just finishing doing up his bow tie, a minute before the dinner was scheduled to start. He'd pulled Louis aside sometime after dinner to give him a nice talking to and had made Louis promise to never be late to another one of these things again. Louis promised, but broke it a month later when he'd been held up in Seattle of all places. That time when Louis arrived late Harry hadn't acknowledged him for an hour. Eventually Harry stopped being angry every time Louis was late for something and started being worried instead. 

Louis' not even going to be late for this one, though. He's going to miss it all together and the wrath of one Mr. Harry Styles is not something Louis wants to deal with any time soon. But Liam is right and there's not a safe way for them to contact anyone right now so he's just going to have to deal with.

**

**Three days later**

He's limping and there's no way Harry will not notice. If Harry will even let him in, that is.

Three days later than he said he'd be and he missed the charity thing he promised Harry he'd be at. And he couldn't call or text or email or anything that would let Harry know he was alive and well. Harry's going to be pissed and Louis doesn't blame him. The fact that he's hurt will either come in handy or make things worse. Louis hasn't decided which yet.

Limping up the walk way to the front door, he curses the fact that they decided to move houses a year and a half ago. Harry's previous house had been bigger than they needed and Harry wanted something that was a bit more them, so they'd gone house hunting. Somehow they'd ended up with a house even bigger than the previous one. Louis loves it, though. 

It is them in so many ways. There's a garden that Harry had requested they have, an indoor and outdoor pool, in door and outdoor hot tubs, the two story library and three offices, six bedrooms, four sitting rooms, a game room that Louis spends most of his time in, a conservatory (Louis was overly excited about that), an exercise room, and a finished basement that Louis has converted into a training area. Not to mention the security wing of the house with the full flat over the four car garage. The place is big, probably too big for them, but it had everything they both wanted.

The decorating had been the hard part of the whole process. Louis didn't care too much at first, but once Harry started bringing things in and picking paint colors Louis' feelings on decorating changed. Harry likes more modern, spacious, bright rooms with lots of rugs, while Louis tends to like antiques, hardwood floors, and dark colors. They'd argued for a month just on what color to paint the kitchen. In the end, they'd brought Niall in and let him decorate the place for them.

Niall had done a brilliant job. He'd somehow managed to effortlessly combine both their tastes. They both have a weird eclectic thing going on, which made the house the definition of eclectic. The house is a mixture of modern and old, bright and dark, but it works. Niall had even given them each a personalized office. Harry has his, furnished with modern furniture and bright, light mint green walls. Louis's is a dark grey color with low lighting and an antique desk from Antigua. Niall should maybe consider switching careers.

The house is lovely, but right now he hates it with a burning passion. The old house had a short walkway and one step up to the door. This one is the exact opposite. The walk way is long and there's six steps up to the door. With each step he hisses out in pain. His ankle isn't broken, but it's a severe strain and he was instructed to stay off it for a few days. Which of course he hasn't done.

When he finally reaches the door, he pulls out his key. He lets out a sigh of relief when the door opens without a problem. He's half expected Harry to change the locks. He did that once about a year ago when Louis was gone for two weeks instead of two days. What Harry hadn't taken into consideration is Louis literally makes a living out of getting into places he can't. 

He limps through the doorway, letting the door fall closed behind him with a soft click. He drops his bags on the floor, noticing that he's not being attacked by a dog yet – must be with Harry – and goes in search of Harry. His ankle is killing him, but it's a big house and yelling doesn't always help. And Harry may not even be home.

Once he's searched the whole of the downstairs, he stops by the security office. Paul's sitting at his desk, glasses on and book open. He looks up when Louis quietly knocks on the door.

“Ah, Louis,” he says, letting the book close. “Glad to see you home, three days late.”

Like Harry, Paul is used to Louis showing up later than he'd said. Paul doesn't get upset like Harry does. He mostly gets upset for Harry and angry because Harry's upset. Louis appreciates that, but for once he'd like someone in his corner.

Louis gives Paul what he hopes is his most apologetic look. “Got a bit held up,” he explains. “Hurt me ankle, but I'm here now.” Paul only hums in response. “Is Harry here?”

“Upstairs, I think.”

Louis groans, rubbing a hand down his face. Of course Harry would be upstairs. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”

Paul studies him for a second, nodding slightly before going back to his book. Louis leaves the security office and makes his way for the main stairs. He stops at the bottom, glaring at them. His ankle isn't going to like this, but he should find Harry, let him know he's home and all before he has a coronary. 

He goes to take the first step, but stops when he hears Harry's deep, unimpressed voice from the balcony. “Oh, look who's home.” He's standing on the other side of the balcony, hand on the railing as he stares blankly down at Louis. “Glad you're not dead and you should know you missed a great event the other night. Sorry you missed it.”

Harry starts walking toward the stairs and Louis has a moment where he nearly cries in relief when Harry actually starts walking down them, but Harry's upset and Louis' not sure if he's mad or if he'd just been worried. Harry's hard to read for him still, especially when it comes to this.

Dog – yes their dog's name is dog, Harry thought he was being clever – runs down the stairs, past Harry, and excitedly leaps up at Louis. Louis manages to pat her head a couple of times, but she seems to pick up on the tension in the room or that Louis is in pain and she stops jumping at him to run down the hall, probably to annoy Paul.

“Harry,” he sighs as Harry walks right past him and turns to go into the east sitting room that overlooks the gardens. He slowly follows after Harry, trying to not let his limp show. “I'm sorry I missed whatever it was I missed.”

Harry stops in front of the window, picking a folder off the table that sits in front of it. He hums, flipping through the contents. “Well, that's not really what I'm pissed about.”

So he's angry. Good. Now Louis can figure out how to fix this. “Look, you know I would have called you-.”

“You said it was an easy job,” Harry says, cutting him off, but eyes never straying from the folder. “Said it would only take two days and you'd be home. Said it was honestly the easiest job you'd ever had. So imagine my surprise when you were gone for nearly a week.”

“Liam wasn't exactly honest about what the job was,” Louis defends, taking another step into the room. “And it went wrong. The easy ones usually do. You know that. But I'm here now.”

Harry lowers the folder and finally looks at him. His features are softer now than they were earlier. His anger is fading into annoyance, which is not good territory. He'd much rather deal with angry Harry than passive-aggressive Harry. “You could have called.”

“No I couldn't have.”

Pursing his lips, Harry lets out an aggravated breath and drops the folder back onto the table. “You always say that,” he says, turning on his heel and walking out of the room. Louis follows after him, wincing with every step. “But I'm starting to think you just don't want to.”

“Well, that's blatantly untrue,” Louis replies, louder than he normally would because Harry's got his back to him and is a room away from him. 

“It can't honestly be that unsafe to send me a text from a prepaid phone.”

Harry's got a point there, but Louis was a little preoccupied this time with his injury. He continues walking, but Louis can't. The pain in his ankle too much now. “Harry, I really do-. Can you please just stop walking? I can't keep up.”

He watches through the doorway as Harry turns on his heel, brow furrowed. “What? What do you mean?”

Louis reaches behind him and feels for one of the chairs. He pulls it out and lets himself fall back. He sighs in relief when he actually hits the chair and not the floor. “I fucking hurt my ankle, that's what that means,” he replies, gingerly lifting his leg up and propping it up on his other. “Things went a little wrong and I ended up jumping out a third story window.”

Harry's crouched in front on him in less than a second. “How badly is it hurt?” he asks, eyes flitting between Louis' and his ankle. “Is it broke?”

Louis shakes his head. “Nah, just a sprang. I was told to stay off it for a while, but I had to get back so you wouldn't worry yourself to death.”

Frowning, Harry says, “I wouldn't die from worry, Louis, but thanks for compromising your ankle for me.” Louis smirks down at him, but Harry remains frowning. “Do you need anything?”

“Just to not move for a week.” He's pretty sure he's done more damage to it.

“You can't be comfortable here.”

“I'm not.”

And Louis knows what Harry's going to do, so he stops him. He pushes himself up, pushing Harry away from him. Harry falls to his arse, frowning harder. “What are you doing? You should stay off it.”

Louis starts limping toward the sitting room with the fireplace Harry always keeps on. “I'm going to lie on the sofa. Get off my feet.”

“You should let me carry you,” Harry calls to him. Louis only shrugs, knowing Harry can't see him. “I don't want you to hurt yourself more.”

His voice is closer now and as Louis crosses into the room, Harry comes up behind him, hand placed on the small of Louis' back. “You'd hurt your back,” Louis retorts, grabbing the throw off the back of the armchair. He settles himself in the corner of the sofa, propping his leg up on it and covers himself with the throw. “I'm fine.”

Harry sits on the opposite side of the sofa, making himself as small as possible so Louis has more room to stretch out. “What were you doing anyway?”

“You know I can't tell you.”

“You won't tell me,” Harry corrects, pouting.

“You won't like it.”

“You don't know that.”

Louis sighs, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Harry.”

They go through this every couple of months. Louis will do a job and Harry will pester him about what it was. For the most part Harry will drop it easily when Louis says he won't tell because he knows its for his own safety. One of the things they agreed on – well, Louis forced Harry to agree – was that Harry's safety is the most important thing. Louis only tells him what he absolutely needs to know, like how long he'll be gone and a general area of where he'll be, but that's all. 

Harry's normally okay with it, but when Louis shows up hurt or later than he'd said Harry starts to press a bit more. It's not that Louis doesn't want to tell him. He hates keeping things from Harry, but it really is for his own safety. If somehow they found something tracing the jobs back to Louis and they came for Harry he could be held as an accomplice or for aiding and abetting a criminal. If Harry doesn't know, he's safe. He probably already knows too much.

But just because Louis hurt his ankle doesn't mean he's going to tell Harry what happened or what he and Liam were doing. And he's right. Harry wouldn't like it.

Harry gives up easily this time. “Yeah, yeah. Okay.”

Louis gives him a small smile. “Sorry, but those are the rules, love.” He lightly kicks Harry in the shin with his good foot. “But hey. You can tell me about your week. Anything good happen? Any more fights at the office over who gets the last good pen?”

Harry lets out a quiet laugh and launches into a story about his week, Dog coming in at some point and curling up on the floor below them. It's not as life threatening as Louis' or as exciting – not to Louis that is – but Harry seems to have enjoyed his week and Louis can't hide his smile. It sounds mundane and something that would drive Louis batty, but Harry clearly enjoyed it and that's what's important.

They have their separate lives without the other and that's great. Louis doesn't mind that Harry has friends he likes to see without Louis tagging. He doesn't mind that Harry has jokes with people that isn't him. He doesn't mind that Harry sees people at work sometimes more than he sees Louis. And, while Harry does mind him doing dangerous things, he doesn't mind being left out of it. He doesn't mind that Louis has a whole life outside of the life he has with Harry.

They are separate people with separate likes and dislikes and separate careers and it's part of what makes them so great together. Because they can have those separate lives outside of each other, but then come home and be them together. It's great and Louis loves it.

Harry's in the middle of telling a story about something Tom from the office had said to him when Louis cuts him off, overwhelmed with the need to tell Harry.

“I love you,” he says softly, catching Harry's eyes.

“Yeah,” Harry replies, smiling. “I love you too.”

Harry pushes himself up so he's leaning over Louis's lap and kissing him. It's not a heated kiss, not anything that would lead to more than this, but it still means so much – so much emotion packed into it as Harry presses their lips together. It's been a week since they've touched in any way and since they've said those three words to each other. They've gone longer, but Louis could have very easily gotten a lot more injured on this job. This means a hell of a lot more to him than usual.

Pulling back, Harry sighs, squeezing himself into the space between Louis and the back of the sofa. “I'm glad you're back.”

Louis wraps his arm around Harry, pulling him closer so that he can rest his head on Harry's. “Me too,” he admits, letting his eyes slip shut.

“Promise you'll take a little longer of a break this time?”

“I promise.”

Harry hums contentedly and snuggles into him. Louis doesn't open his eyes and they fall asleep together for the first time in almost a week.

**

**Two weeks later**

He's been home for two weeks – ankle just healed because he did do more damage to it – when he gets the call. He and Harry were spending a quiet, lazy Sunday home together in bed when his phone rings. Harry had just gotten up to piss when Zayn decided to ruin Louis' day.

“You better have a good reason for calling on a lazy Sunday, Malik,” he says as soon as he answers the call.

“Niall's in trouble,” Zayn's frantic voice replies.

“What?” Louis sits up, sheets pooling around his waist. “What do you mean?”

On the other end, Zayn huffs out a breath. “He's in trouble. Like I said.”

As Harry walks back into the room Louis glances at him. His brow is furrowed and he's walking over to the bed hesitantly like he doesn't know if he should come in or not. “What kind of trouble, Zayn? Is it like the time he got shot? Or....”

He trails off, hoping Zayn will decide to be nice and actually tell him what's happening. He waves Harry over, eyes focused on the spot between his outstretched legs. Harry climbs in, getting as close as he can without being in Louis' lap.

“He's been detained,” Zayn answers. “In Russia,” he adds, just before telling someone on his end to fuck off. “Thought you'd like to know.”

“What in the hell is he doing in Russia?” Louis asks, brow furrowed. 

“No idea,” Zayn answers, the noise on his end quieting. “Don't think he was working. I'm not sure.”

“Then how do you know he was there?”

“Niall and Liam have weekly skype sessions for some reason I don't understand,” he explains, sounding a bit more calm than he had before. “He missed it this week and Liam started looking into it. Before he got much of a chance to do anything Niall called him. Said he'd been arrested in Russia and he can't get out of it on his own. It's all he said basically. And then Liam called me and I'm calling you.”

Louis takes a minute to process, rubbing at his temple. “Okay, I don't understand. Niall's been arrested in Russia and he needs help. Is this a one person job or all three of us?”

He holds his breath, hoping Zayn says he and Liam have it covered because he'd prefer to not go to Russia, would be perfectly happy staying here with Harry. He promised Harry he'd stay at home for a while, too. He doesn't want to leave.

“It's a Russian prison, Louis. What do you think?”

Louis slumps over, looking over at Harry. He's watching intently, eyes soft and understanding. “You should go,” he says quietly. “Help him. Lord knows he'd drop everything to help you if you needed it. Besides, if he's in prison I'm not going to be able to give him his Christmas present.”

He doesn't ask even though he wants to because it's early October, but they've got more important issues, so he nods and mouths a “thank you”.

“Is that Harry?” Zayn asks cheerily. “Say hi would you? I haven't seen him in ages.”

Louis ignores him completely. “What are we doing?”

**

**A day later**

What they're doing ends up being a lot of nothing with a side of mildly dangerous impersonation of a member of the St. Petersburg Internal Affairs and a member of Interpol.

Liam was able to find out that Niall had been arrested for white-collar crime. Apparently they've gotten him on just about every type of typical white-collar crime in the book – money laundering, Ponzi scheme, forgery, identity theft – but Liam said Niall had been adamant that he wasn't there to pull a job. A little more digging into it and Liam had found that the police didn't have any proof of anything.

When Louis had questioned how they were able to hold him without proof Liam had merely said that Russian police, like any other police in the world, can get away with a lot of things if they know the right people. Louis maintains his position that it's a bit shit, but he's got a feeling there's a bit more to it than that.

The plan they'd come up with was to go in undercover and extract Niall as quickly as possible. The undercover part wasn't appealing to Louis, but he'd willing to do a hell of a lot for that Irish bastard of a friend of his.

Zayn's going in under the guise of being part of the St. Petersburg Internal Affairs, since he's the only one that can speak Russian fluently. (Louis can't speak it all, which Zayn, for over an hour, gave him shit for.) Louis's going in as a member of Interpol, who wants Niall for International financial crimes. There's a good chance this won't work, but if it does Niall owes them so much.

They'd gotten into the prison without a problem, but the Russian guards seemed a bit skeptical of Louis and they've made him wait in an interrogation room while they and Zayn fetch Niall from his cell. He knows he's being watched through the mirror across from him, so he leans back in his chair and waits.

It's about ten minutes before the door is opening and Zayn's stepping through, followed by a guard, and then a handcuffed Niall is being pushed into the room by another guard. Louis stands, straightens out his jacket and watches as Niall's harshly pushed into the chair across the table.

“Ah, Mr. Horan,” he draws out, crossing his arms as he stares Niall down. “I can honestly say I was surprised to find you in Russia.”

“Well, Agent,” Niall leans forward, squinting his eyes to read Louis's name tag, “Bosh, I felt the need for a change in scenery.”

It takes everything in him not to roll his eyes. “Hmm. Seems you're in a bit of a pickle, huh?”

Niall frowns up at him and out of the corner of his eye he sees Zayn rolls his eyes from where he's leaning against the wall. “You going to tell me while you're here?”

“Why do you think?”

The Russian guards are in the corner whispering to each other, no doubt trying to figure out the validity of Louis's reason for being there.

Narrowing his eyes, Niall leans back. The light hits his face and Louis finally sees the bruise around his eye and the cut down his cheek. “I think you're here to take me away from this fine establishment.”

Louis opens his mouth to retort, but Zayn cuts in, saying something in Russian to the two guards. They nod when he's done and move forward, grabbing Niall under the armpits and hauling him up. Niall winces in pain as they start manhandling him out of the room.

“Where are they taking him?” Louis demands, following after them until he reaches the door. The guards continue dragging him down the hall. “What's going on? What are they doing?”

Zayn steps in front of him, gesturing for him to calm down. “They're taking him to receive his things and then you're free to take him.”

Louis glares. He doesn't like Niall being alone with these guards. He's already beaten up and Louis doesn't know if it's from the guards or other prisoners, but judging by the way they were handling him, he'd bet good money on the guards.

It's another twenty minutes before Niall is brought back to them. He's in skinnies, a shirt he most definitely borrowed from Harry and he's still handcuffed. The guards look less than thrilled to hand him over and Louis goes out of his way to avoid thanking them.

The whole way out of the prison and out of St. Petersburg is spent in silence. Louis is pissed off and he knows he shouldn't be, but Niall knows better and it seems the St. Petersburg police are just as horrible if not worse than the Brazilian police Louis encountered all those years ago. He knows Niall and Zayn can sense he's angry and they know him well enough to know that he knows it's irrational to be this upset – maybe spending so much time with Harry is causing him to pick up Harry's irrational tendencies – so they know not to say anything or it'll make it worse.

The only time someone speaks is when Niall asks about Liam and Zayn tells him their crossing the border to Finland to meet Liam in Helsinki where they'll catch a flight to London. No one says anything after that and Louis continues to silently curse everything.

**

**Ten and a half hours later**

They decided to take Niall to his and Harry's, mostly because it's got room for him to stay in during his recovery. (Apparently, they had beat him up a bit more than Louis had thought, which only angered Louis more.) But also because Harry and Niall are quite close and he knows Harry's been worried and will want to see for himself that Niall's okay.

On the flight from Helsinki to London, Louis had made it a point to sit as far away from Niall as possible. Zayn had sat with him, tried to talk to Louis, but he'd snapped at Zayn to leave him alone and that was that. No one talked – well, Liam and Niall might have he wouldn't know. 

Louis had spent the flight and car journey to his house slowly transitioning from anger to annoyance to relief and back to anger, which is why he stalks past everyone when they get out of the car. He makes it through the door connecting the garage and the house, ignoring Zayn calling his name and Dog running past him to Liam because for whatever reason she's in love with him.

He smells Harry's candles and follows the scent into the library. Harry's curled up in a chair, glasses on and book in hand. He doesn't look up as Louis throws himself into the chair across from him. There's a good chance he doesn't even notice Louis's in the room, so Louis lets out an aggravated breath.

Harry looks up, eyes wide. When he sees Louis his eyes go back to normal and he sets the book aside. “Oh, Louis. Where's-.”

He's cut off by the others filing in and Zayn immediately ripping into Louis. “You could be a bit more hospitable,” he says, sitting on the edge of the desk. “I know you're angry, but he's okay.”

“Thanks to us,” Louis mutters, folding his arms over his chest. “And may I remind you that he's quite bruised up.”

“I'm right here you know?” Niall speaks up, lowering himself into the third chair. “And yes, I'm a bit bruised, but I am alive.”

“You sure you're okay?” Harry asks him, shooting Louis a disapproving look. “Need anything?”

“Yeah, for your boyfriend to stop being a dick.”

Harry frowns, sending Louis another look before turning back to Niall. “He's only a dick because he cares,” Harry defends, even though Louis knows he agrees with Niall. “Give him a little longer to cool off.”

Liam, who's standing near the fireplace, says, “Actually, I'm sort of with Louis on this one. What the hell did you do?”

Niall lets out a deep breath, shuffling around in his chair. “Masha Boykov.”

Louis cocks an eyebrow. “Yeah? What is that? The place you were going to steal from?”

“It's a name, Louis,” Zayn says exasperatedly. 

“Oh.”

“Masha Boykov,” Niall continues, “is a woman.”

“So you literally did her,” Louis comments, smirking. Harry shoots him a look and the smirk falls from his face immediately. “Sorry, go on.”

Niall doesn't seem bothered by the comment as he continues. “I was in Russia visiting.”

Liam's face scrunches up in confusion. “Why? What's in Russia you'd want to visit?”

Sighing, Niall turns in his chair to face Liam. “It's got an interesting history, Payno, and I like that sort of thing. But, anyway, I was there visiting and I met Masha and we, you know.” He trails off, waving a hand. “She was a nice girl, but turns out she's a part of SP Internal Affairs.”

Eyes widening, Louis asks, “She arrested you?”

Niall shakes his head. “No, she just turned me in. Then I called Liam.”

“How'd she know who you were?” Harry asks, leaning forward. “Like, she must've known they could arrest you on something.”

Niall's cheeks blush. “Well, I actually told her my real name, but they arrested me on a bunch of made up charges. So I'm not entirely sure what she did.”

“Okay,” Zayn sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Okay, so just stay away from Russia for a while. I think you'll be okay.”

For whatever reason Niall doesn't seem too thrilled about that, but he doesn't argue, just nods and excuses himself for a nap. Liam and Zayn don't stay much longer, both having things they need to do. When they leave Louis focuses his gaze on his lap, doing his best to ignore the worried glances Harry's shooting him. He doesn't do a good job of it, though, because he sighs and meets Harry's eyes.

“You were a bit hard on him,” Harry says, voice soft, yet cutting in the quiet of the room. “I think you should apologize.”

“Nah,” Louis says, shaking his head. “He knows why I was acting that way. He'll be fine.” Harry only cocks an eyebrow. “Whatever he was doing was risky and he shouldn't have been involved.”

“He's an adult, though,” Harry points out, pushing himself out of his chair and crossing the distance between them. He straddles Louis's lap, cupping his face in his hands. “I love that you care so much about your friends, but sometimes you go about it in the wrong way.”

He doesn't give Louis a chance to defend himself before he's kissing him. Louis's hands grip at Harry's waist. With each press of Harry's lips against his own all the tension that he's been feeling since he found out about Niall being arrested quickly fades away. It's amazing that Harry can do that to him.

Harry doesn't kiss him long, pulling back after a couple seconds and resting his forehead against Louis'.

“I was just scared,” Louis admits quietly, letting his eyes fall shut. “Niall, he's better at this shit than I am, but he's like a little brother to me and I feel like I need to protect him.”

“But he's not your little brother,” Harry points out, hand sliding down Louis' face to rest on his shoulder. “And he can take care of himself. He's fine.”

“I know,” Louis sighs, snuggling his face into Harry's neck. When he speaks his lips brush Harry's skin. “I just don't want anything to happen to him. Or Liam and Zayn. Besides you they're the only people I care about.”

Harry wraps his arms around him, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. “I know and they know, but like I said be a bit easier on them. Even if you do mean well no one wants to deal with you being a dick.”

Louis snorts out a laugh. “I suppose I should apologize then. But I'll do it tomorrow. Niall's probably already asleep and I'd like to sleep as well.”

Harry pulls away from and stands, holding a hand out for him. Louis takes it and lets Harry lead him to bed. He sleeps for the next fifteen hours.

**

**Three weeks later**

“This better be good,” Louis calls as he steps through the door to Niall's flat. He unwraps his scarf, hangs it on the hook and starts working on his coat. Niall had sent a group text – the one that doesn't include Harry – saying he needed to talk to them about something important, but refused to give them any details. Louis had thought about ignoring him to stay home with Harry to play Scrabble of all things, but his curiosity got the better of him. “I could be playing a rousing game of Scrabble right now.”

“You're life is so exciting,” Zayn comments dryly as he walks by holding two bottles of beer in his hand.

Louis frowns, following after him. “Hey, my life is plenty exciting. Just because you twats don't know what it's like to be in a loving committed relationship.”

As he's handing Liam a beer, Zayn rolls his eyes. “I don't like loving, committed Louis. You're boring.”

Crossing his arms, Louis glares, watching Zayn sit next to Liam on the sofa. “I am not boring. I just happen to enjoy spending time at home with the person I love. Forgive me for that.”

“How often do you sit and just watch Harry work, then?” Liam questions, his lips turned up at the corner. 

“If you'd rather me leave I can do that,” Louis retorts, pointing at the door behind him. “I'd much rather be with Harry. At least he doesn't make fun of me.”

Niall walks into the room then, oversized, cream jumper on and a pair of black rimmed glasses. “No one's making fun of you, Lou,” he says. “Now sit down.”

Louis sits in the armchair to Liam's left, grumbling the whole time about the abuse he receives. No one pays him any attention because Niall's standing in the center of the room, flipping through the contents of a manila folder.

“Not to sound like Louis,” Zayn begins, “but can we get a move on here? And this better be worth my time. I was in Cancun.”

Louis glances sideways at him. He'd not been aware Zayn was out of London, let alone out of the country. Zayn doesn't acknowledge him, instead keeps staring up at Niall, who's now closed the folder is and frowning at them.

“There's a job in Paris I want to do,” he says eventually. He tosses the folder onto the coffee table and starts pacing, hands clasped behind his back. “There's a French diplomat – to Russia – who's just received a huge shipment of diamonds _from_ Russia. The thing is, no one knows how he got the diamonds, why or where he's putting them.”

“Well, if he's the diplomat to Russia maybe it's like a gift of some sort,” Liam suggests, but Niall's immediately shaking his head.

“Believe me that is not what this is,” he says. “And if it is it's under the table and not legal in the slightest.”

“Is this why you were in Russia?” Zayn asks.

Niall turns to him. “Ironically, no.”

“So,” Louis draws out, leaning forward. “Are you wanting the diamonds then?”

Niall shakes his head again. “Well, yes, but I'm mostly just interested in why he has them and how he gets them. However, there is a super rare diamond he has required that I'd love to have. Worth several million.”

“Since when did we become diamond thieves?” Louis questions, earning a kick in the shin from Liam. “What? Just asking.”

Ignoring him, Niall continues. “He's also got a lot of priceless French and Russian art. Think you'd be into that,” he says to Zayn.

Zayn does look slightly more interested. “Why are you sharing this with us?” he inquires, scratching at his chin. “I'm assuming there's a reason.”

“It's big and I need help,” Niall says simply. After a beat, he adds, “I want the three of you.”

“You don't have to ask me twice,” Zayn replies.

Liam shrugs, looking less excited than Zayn. “Sure. I've been looking for something to do. And maybe some more diamonds will help the mess I've made with Sophia.”

Louis wants to point out that Sophia is more than capable of getting diamonds on her own, but the three of them turn to him waiting for his response.

He already knows what his answer is and he knows they aren't going to like it. He doesn't do massive jobs any more. They're way too dangerous and he's got Harry to think about now. He doesn't mind doing tiny runs with one of them every now and then and he's even pulled jobs he's wanted to do in the last three years, but he's not going to risk his life for a bunch of diamonds if he doesn't have to. 

If something were to happen to him Harry wouldn't fare well. Not to mention if Louis gets caught and the authorities find out about Harry. Or if he successfully pulls the job off and the people he fucks over wants revenge. If they find out about Louis' relationship they'd most definitely use that against him. Melvin Howard already did use his relationship against him to extent and Harry still apologizes for it to this day.

Plus, while the majority of the world's law enforcement think Louis died three years ago, he still has to be careful. He knows there are people in the agencies that don't believe and that know it wasn't really him. If he tries to pull something too big it will compromise his security of being known to be dead.

A hundred and one things could go wrong and he's not willing to risk it for him or for Harry.

“Sorry, lads, but I think I'll take a rain check on this one.”

Niall's mouth pops open and he blinks rapidly at him. “You're saying no?”

Nodding, Louis confirms, “I'm saying no.”

“But why?” Liam questions, brow furrowed. Zayn's sitting next to him, lips pursed and a knowing expression. “Why are you saying no?”

“For the same reason I said no to the thing in Tokyo last year,” he answers patiently. “It's too dangerous.”

Niall snorts. “Zayn and Liam were right. You have gotten boring.”

And if Niall thought that was going to get Louis to say yes he was sadly mistaken. Immediately, Louis feels anger flowing through him. Niall knows – as well as Zayn and Liam – exactly why he's saying no. He's said no a dozen times in the last three years and it's always the same reason. 

Normally, they try to change his mind, but Louis' a stubborn man and they give up after twenty minutes. Niall must think his new tactic of making Louis think he's become old and boring would convince him better. It doesn't. Louis's happy with his life the way it is. Sure he'd maybe like some children or whatever, but he and Harry have discussed it several times. It's not an option for them, but Louis' okay with that. He's okay with just about anything if it means he gets to have Harry.

He stands and points at Niall. “For one thing, my little Irish friend, I have to be careful. Yes, I'm technically dead, but there are people who know the truth and who suspect something. Unless you've forgotten about that. Secondly, I have to think about Harry. You know, you're _friend_ that you don't want anything to happen to. I'm not going to go into why because I know you're smart enough to know, but I will do whatever I have to to protect him and if that means I'm going to be _boring_ I'm okay with that.”

Niall's staring at him with a look that's very close to betrayal, but he only shakes his head and stalks out of the room. Louis sighs and rolls his eyes as he turns to Zayn and Liam.

Zayn's expression hasn't changed, but Liam's staring up at him with a disapproving pout. “What?” he asks, throwing his arms out. “What have I done?”

“We need you, Louis,” Liam says. “You know we can work alone or with just two of us, but whenever just three of us have tried it's been a disaster. He needs and wants us all.”

“If he doesn't want to do it don't make him feel guilty.”

“I don't feel guilty,” Louis squawks, tilting his head toward Zayn. “In no way do I feel guilty. I just think the three of you would know by now that I'm not going to do something this big. And you know my reasons why. I'm getting tired of repeating myself.”

“So you really don't think you've gotten boring?”

Frowning, Louis answers with an emphatic “No.” Zayn only quirks an eyebrow in response. “Like I said I enjoy my life just fine. And I nearly died a month ago stealing from the Smithsonian!”

“I've apologized for that,” Liam speaks up, his cheeks a light shade of pink. 

“Will you just stop trying to convince me to do things you know I'm not going to do?”

Niall walks back into the room now, glasses gone. “Well, if you're not going to help you can leave now.”

Louis fish-mouths as Niall walks right past him to sit on the floor across from the sofa. _Great_. He's upset Niall now. He's known Niall for a long time and he's never once had Niall address him so coldly or had him ask Louis to leave.

When Louis makes no move to do so, Niall glances up at him and says, “Seriously, you need to go now.”

His eyebrows must be near his hairline now and he looks over to Zayn and Liam, who only shrug at him. He looks back at Niall. He's determinedly staring at a spot on the coffee table in front of him, not sparing Louis a glance at all.

Louis lets out a loud breath. “Okay, I'll go,” he says, moving toward the door. “But if you run into trouble I'm definitely not helping now,” he calls, grabbing his coat and scarf.

“Yeah, fuck off!” Niall calls back.

Louis lets out an aggravated growl as he wrenches open the door and storms out.

**

**Two days later**

For the first time in all the years he's known him Niall is ignoring him. He'd thought at first that Niall wasn't responding to his texts about coming over for a game of FIFA because he'd already gone to Paris for his job, but he'd found out through Zayn that they've still got a couple days before they leave. That piece of information hurt a little, but not nearly as much as when Zayn had continued on to say that Niall was actually really hurt that Louis wouldn't help.

He feels bad about it because Niall is his friend and he hates when Niall is upset, but he still stands by what he said. He's not going to do it and as his friend Niall should understand and accept his reasoning behind it. If Niall can't accept it it's his problem.

Liam hadn't made Louis feel better either. He'd told Louis that Niall was still upset over the way Louis reacted to him being arrested in Russia, which is probably mostly Niall's problem since Louis did apologize and explained in detail why he reacted the way he did. When they'd ended the conversation he thought everything was fine. Apparently, he was wrong.

And apparently, according to Liam, Niall is really missing the four of them working together like they used to. Louis would argue that they still get together every so often, just the four of them, to hang out or whatever they can come up with. He knows it's not the same, but it's not like they don't see each other.

He's sorry that Niall's upset, but Louis isn't budging on this. It just sucks that Niall won't speak to him and it's making Louis a whiny bastard and he knows it's only a matter of time before Harry snaps and kicks him out of the office because Louis's been sitting in the chair across from him, sighing every couple of minutes. Every time Harry asks what's wrong Louis shakes his head and tells him it's nothing and Harry turns back to his work. Louis' annoying himself, honestly.

Louis sighs again and as if on cue Harry groans, pulling his glasses off and setting them on the desk. “Louis, love, will you please tell me what's wrong so we can sort through it or can you please take your sighing some place else so I can work?”

“Niall's upset with me,” he answers, slumping in his chair and resting his chin on his hand. “He's ignoring me.”

Harry purses his lips. “What'd you do?”

“Me?” Louis squeaks indignantly. “What makes you think I did something?”

“Because if Niall had been the one to do something you would have said you were upset with him not that he was upset with you,” Harry explains. Clasping his hands on top of his desk he asks, “So, what happened?”

Louis narrows his eyes. He hates Harry sometimes. “He's got a job he wants all four of us to do, but I said no because it's too dangerous. He said I've gotten boring, which is a lie. I just don't want to risk it.”

Harry considers him for a moment, biting at his bottom lip. “Do you actually know the details of the job?”

“No.”

“Then it may not be too dangerous,” Harry suggests, making Louis frown. Fucking Harry has a point there and he can't even argue. Harry can tell too because he smirks a little. “Do you want to do it?”

The truth is, yes. He'd very much like to do it – hasn't been able to stop thinking about it since Niall mentioned it. He doesn't feel boring – he _isn't_ – but he does miss pulling bigger jobs occasionally. He's not going to admit that to Harry, though, because it will start a whole other conversation that he doesn't want to have.

He doesn't answer, which for Harry is answer. Thankfully, Harry doesn't call him out. “Why's he upset, though?”

Louis shrugs, picking at his nail. “Liam said it's because he misses the four of us working together and a bunch of other sappy shit. It's ridiculous, is what it is.”

“Yeah, but a few months back you were telling me about how you missed that, too.”

“Uh, no I didn't?”

Harry nods. “Yes you did. You were drunk. You were telling me about it when we got back from Liam's birthday party.”

“Oh.”

Harry's silent for a moment before he says, “You want to.” When Louis raises a questioning eyebrow he continues. “At least a part of you does or you wouldn't be this concerned. Because, lets face it, Niall's being a bit irrational. You know that so you wouldn't be this upset over it. There's a part of you that wants to do it. Maybe you should hear him out before you make your decision. I know it's been a long time since you've done something big and it may not be as dangerous as you think.”

Again, Harry's right. He usually is, which is annoying most of the time, but right now Louis only halfway wants to hit him. 

Every job he does is dangerous and even if he was one hundred percent okay with doing this he'd ask Harry's opinion. It's not Harry's permission he wants because he'd do it regardless and they did agree years ago that Harry didn't have the right to tell him what he could and couldn't do, jut like he wouldn't tell Harry what he could and couldn't do.

Point is, he likes to have Harry's opinion. He likes to know where Harry stands, but this is a little more serious. It is more dangerous than what Louis's been doing and for that reason he would like Harry to be okay with it. Harry doesn't need all the details, but if Louis is going to put himself in more danger than normal he would like to know where Harry stands.

It's refreshing to know that Harry thinks he should at least listen to Niall. Louis loves Harry and he always wants to know that Harry approves at least a little.

Harry reaches over and grabs his phone from the edge of the desk and starts typing away. When he's done he turns his phone around for Louis to see. Louis leans forward to read it.

**Louis wants you to come over with information about this job of yours. He's just being a dick about it. Please forgive him. (That's me asking, not him. You know he's going to be too proud to ask forgiveness. It doesn't mean he's not sorry.)**

Louis smiles and meets Harry's eyes. “I do love you.”

Harry smiles wide back at him. “Yeah, I know.”

**

Harry's text worked and Niall showed up with a backpack full of stuff and Zayn and Liam hot on his heels. As they were getting ready in the library, because according to Harry it's the coziest room in the house, Louis tried to pull Niall aside to apologize, but Niall was quick to walk away. He's trying to not let it get to him too much, but he's not used to Niall being angry with him.

He's going to maintain that he did nothing wrong – there's a part of him that believes that wholeheartedly – and he doesn't think he's going to change his mind about this, but he's willing to do quite a lot to have Niall forgive him.

Zayn and Liam are sat in the armchairs by the fire, Liam's got Dog's head propped on his knee while he scratches her behind the ear, and Harry's leaning against the desk, with his arms crossed, Louis beside him, eyes trained on Niall as he hands folders to Zayn and Liam. He then turns, crosses the room and hands Louis a folder.

Louis gives a quiet thanks, but Niall ignores him to hand Harry a folder. Louis's eyebrows raise as he takes in Harry's confused face as he takes the folder. He turns to Niall. “Uh, why's he need to know? I don't let him know.”

Niall looks at him then, face indifferent. “I want him to know. I want him to know exactly what you'd be doing so he can tell you if you're being stupid.”

Next to him, Harry snickers, covering his face with his hand. Louis glares at Niall. “You know I-.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Niall says, turning away from him. “You don't want him to know so he can't be held accountable for what you do. I get that Louis, but please shut up.”

Frowning, Louis looks at Harry. He's smirking at him over as he puts his glasses on to look inside the folder. Niall turns back to them and Louis notices he's wearing those damn black rimmed glasses again.

"Will you at least take off those glasses,” he says, gesturing to his face. 

Niall reaches up to touch them. “I like them.”

“You don't need them.”

"Harry's wearing glasses,” he argues.

"Yes but he needs them to read."

Narrowing his eyes, Niall asks, "Since when?"

"Since I got old,” Harry speaks up next to him.

"Please," he snorts. "You're hardly old."

"Got some age on me, though,” Harry replies. “You can tell because I need glasses to read and I make noises when I move. And I'm getting grey."

“Balding a bit too,” Louis adds, reaching up to run his fingers through Harry's hair. “But I still love you.”

Niall watches them for a second before rolling his eyes. “My god,” he mutters. “I like them so I'm gonna wear them. Get over it.”

Louis starts to retort, but Zayn interrupts. “Can we get to it, please?”

Clearing his throat, Niall steps into the center of the room. “Okay, so like I said the other day the target is a French diplomat to Russia, who has received several shipments of diamonds from Russia.”

Harry looks up from the folder. “You want the diamonds?”

Niall nods. “Yes, but I'd also like to figure out how he's getting these diamonds and why. No one knows and I have a feeling something is going on there.”

“So, let's involve _ourselves_ in it,” Louis quips, earning a smack on his upper arm from Harry.

“In one of these shipments he's acquired a rare diamond,” Niall continues. “If you turn to the first page in the folder you'll see it.” 

He pauses, letting them look. It's a diamond, but Louis's not entirely sure what makes this rare. It's a decent size. Probably around fifty carats and it's a nice, strong red color.

“It's bigger than the Hope Diamond,” Liam says. Dog's not with him anymore and he's not looking at the folder and neither is Zayn. They must have already gotten this briefing. “And the red color is what makes it rare.”

Nodding, Niall says, “They aren't normally found in Russia, either, so that makes it even better.”

“Do you think he's getting them straight from ALROSA or....” Harry trails off, waving a hand.

“Eh,” Niall shrugs. “It's hard to tell.”

“Wait,” Louis says, holding a finger up. “What's ALROSA?”

When Niall gestures at the folder, Louis looks at the next page, skimming over it as Niall talks. “ALROSA is the Russian group of diamond mining companies, which leads the world in diamond mining in volume or something like that. Mostly the mining takes place in Western Yakutia and the Arkhangelsk region of Russia and several places in Africa. The headquarters are in Mirny and Moscow. They have sales offices in all the major diamond trading centers in the world. Paris is not one of those.”

“From what I've been able to find out,” Liam starts from the chair, “our guy has no business with ALROSA at all, but if it's under the table we wouldn't know.”

“How'd you find out about this?” Louis directs at Niall.

Niall grins. “I've got a friend that works in illegal shipping basically. Tipped me off.”

Harry closes the folder and places it on the desk beside him. “So, you want the diamonds, but you also want to figure out how and why?” Niall nods. “How will you go about it?”

“Well, that's the thing, I don't know where he's got the diamonds. He could very well be selling them to make a profit on his own or he could be keeping them. So we'll have to go in undercover and try to figure it out.”

“Who is this guy?” Louis asks.

“Henri Chardin.”

Beside him, Harry quickly snatches the folder back off the desk and flips through it. He stops on a page that Louis can't see and his eyes widen slowly. “Henri Chardin?” he questions Niall, shutting the folder again. “This is the guy you're going after?”

Hesitantly, Niall nods. “Well, technically I'm going after his illegal diamonds, but yeah. Why?”

“He and Harry went to school together,” Liam answers before Harry gets the chance. “At Cambridge.”

Louis' head snaps over to Harry, brow furrowed. “You went to Cambridge? You never told me.”

“You never asked,” Harry replies, quickly turning back to Niall. “Henri was a good friend of mine. I'm not sure I'm okay with this.”

Louis' not okay with this either. (And he makes a mental note to ask Harry more about his time Cambridge.) If this guy used to be a friend of Harry's Louis doesn't want to target him or his diamonds, especially if Harry doesn't approve.

Niall moves to sit in the empty chair and looks up at Harry. “I know he was a friend, Harry, but this guy isn't that great of a person. There's a page in there that lists all the shit things he's done as a diplomat to Russia. I'm surprised the Russians allow him in the country.”

Frowning, Harry grabs the folder again and starts reading. Louis turns his whole attention to Niall. He's got a horrible feeling he knows exactly why Niall wanted Harry to have this information and he's not okay with it. He won't allow Niall to play Harry like this.

“How exactly are you planning on getting in?”

Niall shoots him a mischievous smile. “Well, I was actually hoping Harry could help us out.”

Harry doesn't look up or make a sound, too busy looking through the list, but Louis immediately shakes his head. “I don't like it.”

“I know,” Niall replies as he stands back up, coming to stand in front of the two of them. “But the only thing Harry would be doing is getting us in and it works perfectly. He'll call up an old friend of his because he's wanting a holiday in Paris with his boyfriend and they don't feel like being touristy and staying in a hotel.”

“It'd get us in easy and quick,” Liam adds. “You'd be in without a problem. Harry can keep him distracted, while you look through his stuff and he'd be none the wiser.”

Louis starts to argue, but Harry's finally looking up and saying, “It's not a bad idea, honestly.” He turns to Louis. “I mean, if you're going to do it, I might as well.”

All their eyes are on him. He's almost sure what his answer is going to be, but he's not going to give in that easily. “What will the rest of you be doing?”

“I want Zayn to go to Russia. To ALROSA headquarters in Moscow,” Niall says. “I want to know if he can dig anything up there.”

“How's that going to help us?” Louis asks, crossing his arms. “I need more details, Horan.”

“It may not,” he answers, shrugging. “But I want to know if we're going to run into more people or not. He may or may not find anything there, regardless, though, he's going to show up and some point as an ALROSA employee searching for the diamonds.”

Liam stands, setting his folder in his chair. “I'm going to be in Paris with you, but I'll be in a hotel somewhere, running background checks and, you know, doing my thing.”

“And I'll be with you and Harry as the bodyguard,” Niall finishes. 

“Really?” Louis asks incredulously.

Niall blinks. “Why? Do you actually want Paul? Because I can change it up a bit. It's no-.”

“You'll be fine, Niall,” Harry says, cutting him off and sending Louis a pointed look. 

Liam comes over and stands next to Niall. “So, Louis, what do you say?”

Louis rolls his eyes, stares at them for a couple of seconds before saying, “I guess I can do it, but if one thing goes wrong I swear I will-.”

Niall cuts him off by throwing his self at Louis and pulling him into a bone crushing hug. Louis sighs, but pats Niall on the back. “Yeah, yeah. Your welcome.”

Harry, because he can't stand being left out of hugs, wraps himself around them from the side, mumbling about how he's glad they made up because he wasn't going to have two Christmases. Louis tells him he's a dork as Liam comes up from behind Niall and adds himself to the hug.

Louis can't see, but he hears Zayn say, “You're all a bunch of idiots,” but he joins the hug too.


	2. And You Thought the Lions Were Bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis and Harry find something in Paris they weren't looking for...not really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was going to wait a bit before posting this chapter, but it's finished and I have no impulse control.
> 
> As always, thank you and enjoy!

**Three days later**

Henri Chardin had been delighted to hear from Harry and all too easily convinced into giving up space in his home for someone he's not seen in about ten years and that person's boyfriend. When Louis had asked Harry how close he and Chardin had been, Harry had told him they lived together for a time and had shared some of the same classes and friends. It'd been hard to not be friends their selves and had become quite close, but once they'd finished with uni they'd lost touch. Still, Chardin had been delighted to hear from him. Louis's not complaining; it makes their job easier, but he's not too thrilled with Harry being involved.

It's not the most dangerous job he's ever been a part of and Harry's going to be relatively safe, but he's still a bit uncomfortable. It's not even his job, which makes him hesitant because every time he helps one of them with a job something always goes wrong. Little things, like almost getting caught at The Smithsonian, isn't that big a deal, but he nearly died once when helping Niall grab six hundred million US dollars from an American politician. Hell, helping Zayn nearly nine years ago went about as bad as it can get. He fell in love with the target, almost fucking over the whole thing, and then nearly died saving said target from a madman. Of course, he got Harry out of it, but that's not the point.

The point is that it's not his job and something _will_ go wrong as usual. Harry's involved so the thing that goes wrong will probably involve Harry somehow, which won't be good for Harry, Louis or Niall because if something happens to Harry Louis will _kill_ Niall for convincing them to do this.

At this point, there's nothing for him to do, but make sure Harry is prepared for whatever could be thrown his way. It will ease some of his worry – nothing will take it away completely – and finally meeting this Henri Chardin fellow and assessing his character will ease his worry even more. Harry first, though. They need to talk.

Harry's walking across the tarmac before Louis' even out of their car. He spares a second to sigh because _of course_ Harry's excited for this, but he does need to say a few things before they board the jet. Quickly, he climbs out of the car and jogs up to Harry, grabbing him by the elbow. Harry turns, pulls off his aviators and quirks an eyebrow.

“Before you get on that jet,” Louis begins, sliding his hand down Harry's arm to lightly grasp Harry's, “I need to know that you understand what you're getting yourself into.”

Realization floods Harry's face as he smiles down at him. “Louis, I know what we're doing. I'm okay.”

He starts to walk away, but Louis tightens his grip on Harry's hand and pulls him back. He drops Harry's hand and runs his own through his hair. “Harry. Haz, could you please just let me do this? It would make me feel better.”

Harry's eyes soften as he nods. “Sure, of course.”

“Remember what I taught you?” he asks, not waiting for Harry to answer. “How to properly use the gun? When and where you should meet me if things go badly?” 

“Yes, Louis” Harry replies quietly. “You make me go through this at least once a month. I think I could recite it in my sleep.”

That much is probably true, but it's hardly once a month. Maybe once every two months. He knows Harry gets tired of it, but it's for his own protection and it makes Louis feel better. Harry knowing proper procedure – as Louis calls it – was one of the things Louis insisted on when they agreed to try an actual relationship. There were a lot of stipulations for their relationship – almost enough to have Louis worrying about it being too many – but they both agreed it was for the best to have them. Better safe than sorry as it were.

In the beginning, Louis had Harry go through “training” and “procedures” with him once a week until he was sure Harry would kill him if he brought it up again. He still thinks it's important to bring it up every now and then to keep it fresh in Harry's mind, but it's hardly once a month.

“Right, well, okay.” He places his hands on his waist, cocking his hip as the wind blows Harry's hair around. “Tell me again or I will not let you get on that jet.”

“Do you want me to go through using a gun step-by-step because I don't think we have time for that?” Harry glances over his shoulder to the jet. “I think the pilot has a specific time he wants to leave and if we're not ready by a certain point I think it'll like mess with everything.”

Gritting his teeth, Louis replies, “Condense it, then.”

Harry closes his eyes, lets out an exasperated breath and starts listing things off. “Check to make sure the mag is loaded. Reinsert the mag, locking it in place. Disengage the safety and slide lock. With my dominant hand, hold the grip, grasping the upper, rear-end of the slide with my other hand to push my gun hand forward while holding the slide in place. Once the slide is back, release it completely. Aim, concentrate, balance. Squeeze, don't pull.” 

He finishes with a dry, toothy smile. “Good,” Louis says. “Now, tell me w-.”

“Only shoot in defense.”

“Kill-.”

“Head and heart,” Harry answer quickly. “Shots that won't kill, but will severely injure the attacker are, but not limited to, chest, spine, leg, hand and foot.”

Louis clenches his jaw. “How about if the attacker is unarmed?” 

“The temple and jaw is, strategically, the best place to hit” Harry rattles off, glancing at the sky. “But a missed hit can dislocate or break fingers. The solar plexus is hard to hit, but effective.” 

He pauses long enough for Louis to open his mouth to ask the next question, but he holds up his hand and talks over him. “And before you ask, if the authorities of any kind get involved I should remove myself from the premises as soon as possible. If you tell me to leave, I leave no questions asked. If someone somehow kidnaps me – can we not say kidnaps – do whatever they ask me to do, don't fight. If we should get separated or the situation gets too dangerous and I have to leave I will meet you in our house outside of Aberdeen. If after a month you haven't contacted me I should go back home and live my life like you were never a part of it.”

Harry pauses again, gesturing toward the jet behind him. “Yes, Louis I know all this. Can we go now?”

Pursing his lips, he drops his hands from his waist. “There's no need to be a smart arse.”

“How was I being a smart arse? I was saving us time by answering your questions before you asked.”

“Shut up,” he mumbles, pushing his aviators back up his nose. He runs a hand through his hair again, looking over his shoulder as another car pulls up. He watches as Niall steps out of the back and waves at him and Harry. Louis waves back and turns back around. Harry's standing there, watching him with intent eyes. “Well, go on then,” he says, waving at the jet.

Harry smiles wide, leans down and presses a quick kiss to his cheek. When he pulls back, he places his aviators back on his face, spins on his heel and practically skips toward the jet. 

He watches as Harry jogs up the steps to the door and happily greets the pilot and stewardess, continues watching long after Harry has disappeared into the dark inside of the jet. Doesn't look away until he feels a hand on his shoulder.

“Beautiful day for a flight,” Niall says, squeezing his shoulder. “Wish there was a way to fly with the windows open.”

With a furrowed brow, Louis replies, “I'm not sure that will ever be possible.”

“Eh,” Niall shrugs. “Did you give Harry your speech?” Louis nods. “Well, I'm sure everything will be fine, but good.” 

Niall takes a deep breath, takes his hand away from Louis' shoulder and starts walking past him toward the jet. “It's gonna be a good one, Lou!” he calls, pulling his travel bag back up on his shoulder.

Louis rolls his eyes at Niall's never waning optimism. 

“Think we've got enough time for a game or two of Scrabble!”

“What am I getting myself into?” he groans, slowly following. This is going to be a long flight.

**

Henri Chardin's mansion is better described as a French Chateau – a French Chateau that Louis would be more impressed by if he were here for better reasons. The grounds of the Chateau are covered in gardens and fountains and, according to Niall, the grounds stretch to a small lake on the backside of the main building. It's not the biggest Chateau in France, but it's still more that what Louis would assume a diplomat would have. As they were pulling up Harry had informed him that the Chardin family had been well off in terms of money and when they died a few years back it had all gone to Henri, which explained the Chateau.

When they'd gotten out of the car, they'd been greeted by Henri, himself. He'd enveloped Harry in a hug immediately, talking about how it'd been too long since they'd seen each other. Louis' not surprised. Harry has an uncanny ability to make friends with someone, not speak to them in years and then go back to being friends like the years of not talking never happened. It's interesting and a tad scary from Louis' point of view because Harry goes through phases of when it comes to his obsessions, which more often than not include people too and he's often found himself wondering if he's one of those obsessions. Harry swears he's an obsession that will last through eternity. Most of the time Louis believes him.

Niall had been introduced as Mike Donaldson, Harry's bodyguard, and then Harry introduced him. Louis has gotten into the habit of watching people closely when they learn his name, to see a spark of recognition. Most of the time, there isn't any, but he noticed the way Chardin's eyebrow had arched infinitesimally. 

“Louis Tomlinson?” Chardin had asked. “Wasn't that the name of the guy from a couple years ago that was killed in his home in Berlin? He was a conman, wasn't he?”

Harry and Niall had cautiously glanced between the two of them, both looking ready to run at any moment, but Louis is good at lying. “Yeah, it's rather unfortunate to share a name with someone like that, but here we are,” he'd replied, shrugging like it wasn't important and that was that.

Chardin had smiled, agreed and turned toward the house, telling them that his staff would show them to their rooms and that they were free to explore the house and it's gardens as much as they liked. Beside him, Harry had sighed, taking Louis' hand in his and squeezing as they followed after Chardin.

The inside of the Chateau is even more immaculate than the outside. It's more modern, but even the newer furniture has an older look to it, with the rich velvet of the cushions and deep purples. There's a fireplace in almost every room and the halls seem endless. He's afraid he'll get lost if he doesn't stick close to someone.

His and Harry's room is bigger than their room at home and has a balcony that overlooks the grounds. The sitting area in front of their fireplace is giving him ideas of things he and Harry can get up to later. They don't have time for that now, though, because Chardin insisted they eat as soon as possible. The only reason Louis isn't already down there like Harry and Niall is because he was tasked with ringing Liam to give him an update. He excused himself, claiming he needed to change into something more comfortable than his suit.

“I'm telling ya, Liam, you'd love this place,” he says, walking into the hall.

“Do you think Sophia would like it?” Liam asks as Louis starts down the stairs. “How much do you think I'd need to buy it from Chardin.”

“I doubt buying Sophia a French Chateau will fix your relationship.”

Liam starts rattling off the kinds of things Sophia likes in her homes. Louis doesn't pay attention, is more preoccupied with finding the dining room. He can hear Harry's laugh, but he can't tell where it's coming from.

“Uh, listen, Liam,” he says, cutting off Liam's sidebar on how dangerous old fireplaces are. “I'm a bit lost and I can't find Harry, so bye.”

He ends the call before Liam can respond and stands in the middle of the hall, straining his ears to hear Harry. He's not laughing now, but if he listens hard enough he can almost make out Harry's voice. Turning his head in every direction, Louis pockets his phone and sighs. Getting lost is going to cause a problem when he starts looking for information.

“Psst, Louis,” he hears from behind him. He spins on his heel, coming face to face with Niall. “What the hell are you doing?”

“What are _you_ doing?”

Frowning, Niall says, “Oh, stop that and come and eat, please. I'm starving.”

“I doubt you're starving,” Louis comments, following after Niall. 

It turns out that the dining room was directly behind him the whole time. When he walks in Chardin is seated at the head of the table, wine glass in hand, telling Harry about how this isn't the formal dining room. Harry looks bored, barely acknowledges when Niall sits across from him, but when Louis pulls out the chair next to him to sit down, Harry turns to him, whole face brightening.

“Sorry, got a bit lost,” he says as he takes his seat.

“Figured. That's why I sent Mike after you,” Harry replies, pecking Louis on the cheek. “Did you know Henri is actually the ambassador to Russia?” he asks, eyes boring into Louis'.

Louis quickly glances at Niall, hoping Niall understands that he's saying, “I'm going to fucking kill you”, but Niall pays him no attention. Louis did not know that. He'd just assumed – well, he doesn't know what he assumed. Now that he thinks about it, Chardin being the ambassador is the only thing that actually makes sense what with him being a diplomat and all. Are there multiple types of diplomats? He should've read more of the file Niall gave him

“Uh, no, dear. I did not,” Louis replies, before turning to Chardin. “I thought ambassadors lived in the country they were ambassador to?”

Henri nods, taking a sip of his wine. “We do, but we don't have to live there the whole time. I'm expected to meet with our government and heads of state here, too, so I like to split my time between the two places and if you ask me, France is much more beautiful than Russia.”

“I'll drink to that,” Niall mutters over his own glass.

“What exactly does an ambassador do?” Harry asks, feigning interest.

“Oh, you know,” Chardin replies, waving a hand around. “Protect citizens, support prosperity, and work toward peace between the two countries. Nothing too exciting.”

Niall hums. “How'd you end up with Russia? I think that's the most important question.”

Chardin laughs. “I go where my country sends me. That is if the other country accepts me. I have to have approval. Plus, I was fluent in Russian. Think that's what did it.”

They chat some more about what it is Chardin does. None of it helps them in any way and Louis' grows quite bored listening, something he knows Harry can tell since he subtly pinches Louis' arm every couple of minutes. The only thing worth remembering about the conversation is the Chardin briefly commented on his lack of a relationship with the Russian diamond mining industry, but it wasn't enough to give anything away.

The only thing that it does is let them know that Chardin does not have a business relationship with ALROSA. It doesn't even help them figure out where he keeps the diamonds he gets, which is the whole and what Louis thought was the sole reason for being there. He's got a feeling there was more to this than Niall let on and if that ends up being the case Niall's got a beating waiting on him for letting Harry get involved without Louis knowing all the details.

Louis spends the rest of the evening thinking of ways to hurt Niall best.

**

**A week later**

The thing about being in what is essentially a mansion is that it makes sneaking around to find hidden, possibly illegal diamonds easier because there are more places to hide and not enough people to cover every room. 

That's also the problem.

The place is big enough that it took him four hours the first night to check the entire downstairs. He'd looked for hidden rooms – checked every book on every bookcase – and hidden staircases, looked in every corner, under every piece of furniture and in every closet. He looked everywhere he possibly could, but found nothing on the ground floor.

The second day he'd decided to check the grounds, which took him nearly the whole day and well into the night. He'd even managed to sneak into the old servants houses and what appeared to be an old stable while Harry had Chardin distracted inside the main building. Again, he'd found nothing.

Day three had been spent sneaking into the servants quarters. It wouldn't have taken the whole six hours he spent, but he had to keep leaving because the servants were in and out all day. As he'd predicted to Harry that morning, he found nothing.

On the fourth day he'd not been able to look around at all because Chardin had insisted they spend some time out in the city. He and Harry had a nice time, but Louis caught every annoyed look Niall sent his way.

His mission for day five had been what he referred to as the basement. It's actually a wine cellar and an empty tunnel that leads to nowhere. He'd hoped – and maybe expected – to find _something_ down there, but all he'd found was a couple of rats and some aged wine he'd like to take for himself. It had taken most of the day to search because every time he disappeared for more than an hour his phone started blowing up with texts from Harry saying that Chardin wanted to show him something, which really meant he wanted to show off.

The sixth day hadn't been very productive, but he'd wanted to check out Chardin's private rooms and to do that he had to make sure Chardin wouldn't be around. Harry had tried to convince Chardin to take him around Paris some more, saying that Louis wasn't feeling well, but Chardin, ever the gracious and caring host, had insisted they not leave Louis alone if he were poorly. Louis personally thinks he's caught on to what Louis does when he's gone for an extent of time without much an alibi. He'd eventually been able to look, though, and he found nothing.

It's day seven and he's just finished hour five of searching the second floor, which completes the search of the whole property. The only thing of significance that he found tonight was an encrypted file on Chardin's computer in his office. He'd not been able to break into it himself, but he had the portable hard-drive Liam gave him for moments like this. After quickly sending a text to Liam and Niall about the file, he downloaded it onto the hard-drive to give to Liam. 

The thing about searching what is essentially a mansion for a whole week is that it leaves one exhausted. Try he's not been running for his life or getting in gunfights with people, but sneaking around and trying not to get caught while actively looking for something is tiring. He wants nothing more than to climb in bed with Harry and sleep for the next couple of days. (And he wants to know why Niall couldn't have searched the place since he's here too, but he supposes Niall had his reasons.)

The other thing about searching what is essentially a mansion for a whole week is that Harry has been almost as much a part of this as he has. While Louis' been off betraying the trust of a French diplomat, Harry has been keeping said diplomat as far away from Louis as possible by keeping him busy and making up excuses to explain where Louis is and what he's doing. Harry's not great at deception as it is, but lying to an old friend of his is harder for him whether he admits it or not. 

It's been just as tiring on Harry as it has Louis, which is why as he slips through the door to their room he's surprised to see Harry sitting up in bed, a book open on his lap with the only light coming from the fireplace and the bedside lamp.

“I was expecting you to be asleep,” he comments, toeing off his shoes as he bends over to place the hard-drive in his backpack. “I know I wish I was.”

“Figured I'd wait up,” Harry replies, eyes never leaving the book. “Besides, I'm too caught up in this story. Did you find anything?”

“What do you think?” he asks dryly, pulling off his jeans and shirt, tossing them to the top of his pile of dirty clothes. “I found a whole lot of nothing, with a side order of an encrypted file I couldn't break.”

Barely glancing up from his book, Harry says, “You transferred it to the hard-drive, right?”

“Yes, Harry.”

Harry only hums, too immersed in his book. He doesn't mind. He's got a routine he goes through before getting in bed and talking to Harry only slows him down.

Once he's done his routine of brushing his teeth, taking a piss, checking his phone for messages before putting it on the charger, and applying anti-aging lotion to the skin around his eyes (he will never admit that to anyone, even Harry) he stands in the middle of the room, watching Harry read.

It's something he's always loved to do because it's one of the few times Harry's ever completely relaxed. It calms Louis when Harry's like this, all soft and quiet and breathtaking. Usually he'll watch Harry read for as long as Harry reads. He'd once asked Harry if it bothered him, but Harry had said he'd not noticed and that had been that.

“I love when you read,” he breathes out.

“So you've said,” Harry responds, flipping the page.

“Yeah, but,” he starts, climbing up the bed, “I don't think you realize how much I mean that.” When he's reached the pillows, he sits on his knees, gently placing a hand under Harry's chin and tilting it up. “It's my favorite thing about you.”

He presses a quick kiss to Harry's lips before letting himself fall over onto his back next to him, watching as Harry grins down at him. “I thought my never-ending wit was your favorite thing about me. Or was it-. Hold on. There was something else you said.” He pauses, grabbing at his chin and tapping his finger. “Oh! My curls or my smell! That's what it was you said.”

“I was piss drunk when I said that and you know it,” he defends, lips quirking up against his will. “So maybe you reading is my third favorite thing about you, so what? It's still a favorite thing.”

“You were not piss drunk when you said it,” Harry argues, slowly closing the book and placing it on his bedside table. “I don't think you've ever been as sober as you were then, but I'll let your delusion go,” he adds, shutting off the lamp and shimmying down the bed so his head is rested on the pillow.

Louis makes a clicking noise with his mouth. “And here I was, ready to fuck you senseless.”

Turning to face him and laughing, Harry says, “You're like a second away from falling asleep. I doubt you've got enough energy to fuck me at all.”

“You could fuck me,” he suggests, though his eyes are half closed. “That'd be fine.”

“Louis, I'm not fucking you when I know you'll fall asleep in the middle. It's not good for my self-esteem,” Harry admonishes. “Also, that's a bit creepy.”

Shrugging, Louis says, “I'm just saying I'd let you do it, but I see your point. I am sleepy.”

As if to prove his point, he breaks off into a yawn, stretching his arms above his head, which is when he remembers. “By the way,” he starts, turning toward Harry, “we're going on a trip tomorrow. Pack a bag.”

“A trip?” Harry questions. “What do you mean?”

“I've got a surprise for you. It's just a weekend thing. No biggie.”

“But what about Henri?” Harry asks. “Certainly got to tell him we're leaving. Not sure how that'll go over.”

“Already did.”

“Oh.” Harry waits a second before adding, “How he'd take the fact that his guests were going on a weekend trip to stay somewhere else.”

It hadn't gone as well as he'd have liked. Chardin had insisted that there was nothing wrong with them staying there and had seemed quite put off by it. Louis wasn't going to tell him that he needed to get away from the man he'd been spying on for a week, so he'd lied. 

He'd told Chardin that, while his hospitality was amazing and they loved the place, they didn't exactly feel like they did at home. He'd insinuated that he and Harry felt a bit uncomfortable having sex in another person's home, especially since Harry's so loud and it embarrasses him and there's so many people here because of all the servants. It was the biggest lie he's ever told, which is saying something. Harry is loud, he's just not embarrassed by it. Chardin, however, was.

After saying he completely understood he basically gave Louis his blessing to do whatever it was he wanted over the weekend wherever it was they were going. 

“I told him that you got embarrassed over being so loud during sex and wouldn't actually do it for the fear of being heard.”

Harry barks out a laugh, quickly covering his mouth to muffle it. When he recovers, he playfully smacks Louis on the bicep. “You know, I'm not embarrassed about that.”

“Oh, _I_ know, but he doesn't.”

“You're horrible.”

“You love me.”

“We'll see. Depends on what the surprise is.”

That leads into a twenty minute Harry-asks-questions-and-Louis-does-not-give-anything-away sessions. By the end of it, they're both having a hard time keeping their eyes open and Louis can't stop yawning. The last thing he remembers before falling asleep was Harry saying, “I actually do love you a lot, even if you are a creep.”

**

**Two days later**

Apparently, Zayn showed up a couple days ago and no one bothered to tell them. Niall said it's because no one wanted to ruin their “romantic weekend getaway” as he'd said. In a way he's grateful for that since it meant he and Harry had an uninterrupted forty-eight hours together in a beautiful hotel in Paris. 

Harry had been amazed at the fact that Louis managed to get them in – had gone on and on about the panoramic views of the city and the overall “amazingness” of the room. He claimed the sofa was the most comfortable sofa in the world and had been delighted when Louis told them they'd be dining out on their terrace by candlelight, which is when he'd said, “Louis, the Shangri-la?”

Louis had replied with, “You honestly didn't think we would come to Paris and not visit my favorite place in the world?” Harry had said that he thought Louis' favorite place was Aruba to which Louis replied with a smile, “That's your favorite place, dear.”

The only time they'd left the room was to eat at the hotel's restaurants. A thing that bothered Louis because that meant they had to put on clothes and leave their bed. The food was almost worth it.

They had a wonderfully romantic couple of days, so yes, he is happy no one bothered them, _but_ Zayn showed up a couple of days ago and now they're behind on information because no one told them.

From what Liam told him on the phone earlier that day, Zayn hadn't found out much that they didn't already think, but he did find out one piece of interesting information that they didn't have, but rather unfortunately it didn't have anything to do with the diamonds. Liam wouldn't tell him what it was, only said that he was going to let Zayn explain in person once they all got together.

They both couldn't get away from Chardin again since they'd been gone for two days, so Harry stayed behind while Louis and Niall went to Liam and Zayn's hotel.

“He did get the diamonds illegally,” Liam reiterates once Zayn's finished explaining that ALROSA never sold the particular diamonds Chardin had to anyone, which means they were either stolen or ALROSA was played by someone.

“Yeah, but did he mean to do it illegally or was _he_ tricked?”

Liam shrugs. “That we don't know, but I'd bet my money that he wasn't tricked.”

“Why?” Louis asks hesitantly.

“The Russian government want him dead,” Zayn says, leaning forward in his seat.

Raising his eyebrows and glancing between Zayn and Liam, Louis again asks, “Why?”

Zayn frowns. “I'm still not entirely sure, but they are pissed off at him for the diamond thing. They're not too thrilled about the French diplomat stealing from their country.”

“Which is essentially losing them money,” Liam finishes.

“Could that be the only reason?” Liam and Zayn both shake their heads. “Okay, well, surely we know something else about this. Liam you've had time to look into it, haven't you?” Louis asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“Um,” Liam starts, glancing hesitantly at Niall, who's standing by the window, “I have.” He looks back to Louis. “I spent all night looking into it, but I still don't know much. What I do know is that Niall won't be happy.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Niall whip his head away from the window, eyes wide and questioning. “It seems our good friend Henri Chardin has been running what is basically black market deals,” Liam continues. “Mostly it's Russian art and antiquities, which could be why he wanted the diamonds.”

“So he could sell them and make even more money,” Louis mutters.

“Yeah,” Liam nods. Taking a deep breath, he continues. “He's cost the country a lot of money.”

“And he's doing it illegally,” Zayn adds.

Liam nods again. “Yes. I did some more digging into his professional relationship with the country. Turns out a few months back his trips to Russia completely stopped.” He opens his laptop, typing as he continues speaking. “It wouldn't seem so odd if one didn't expect the diplomat to be there, so it grabbed my attention. A few months prior to that, Russia and France had a deal in the making concerning the sell of their diamonds to French companies, but the deal fell through.”

Narrowing his eyes, Louis purses his lips. “Let me guess, Chardin was the reason it didn't work?”

“You'd be correct,” Liam answers. “Basically the deal was a trade. Russia would sell their diamonds to France and France would up their amount of exported gas turbines, planes, helicopters and aircraft launch gear to Russia. Chardin somehow convinced the French government that this was a bad idea.”

Zayn cuts in then, pulling Liam's laptop toward him. “He convinced the government that Russia was getting the better end of the deal. Mentioned that he'd heard some politicians talking about how with what Russia was asking for it'd be easier for them to build up their army and something about airstrikes in the Middle East that I don't fully understand.” He pauses, taking a breath and meeting Louis' eyes. “Basically, he told them that the deal wouldn't work, painted Russia as the bad guys and said they could get diamonds elsewhere.”

“And now the Russians want him dead and he may or may not be aware of that fact,” Liam concludes.

“Great,” Louis draws out, leaning back in his chair. “So what do we do now?” 

“I still want the diamonds.”

All three of them turn to Niall with varying degrees of surprise. Niall doesn't seemed phased, only crossing the room to the bar to pour himself a drink.

“Is it really worth getting into the middle of a political dispute?” Liam inquires, staring over at him.

Niall turns, swallowing down a drink. “Look, what Chardin did was not okay, but he doesn't deserve _to die_.” 

Louis gets up and goes to stand in front of Niall. “So you _are_ saying we get ourselves into a political dispute?” When Niall stays silent, Louis throws his arms out. “What about Harry?” he questions because this is not what Harry signed up for and it's not what Louis agreed to let Harry into.

“How about we just protect him long enough to find those diamonds?” 

Before Louis has a chance to argue, Liam's standing and facing them both. “Yeah, but isn't there a chance the Russian government will want the diamonds back? Because I say that's a serious possibility. You'd be endangering yourself, Niall.”

“They don't want the diamonds. Trust me.” 

“You know what, Niall, I don't think I will,” Louis says, waving a dismissive hand at him as he turns. “The Russians want him dead _because_ of these diamonds and what he did with the trade deal. They probably do want the diamonds back and us sticking around is endangering all of us. I know _I_ don't want to be here when the Russians get here. Do _you_?”

Niall stays silent.

“We're not in the business of protecting people,” Liam says.”

Zayn sighs from his spot on the sofa. “Look, Niall, I understand completely why Lou doesn't want to do this,” he says. “It's not what any of us signed up for, you know that. And it _is_ more dangerous and Harry _shouldn’t_ be involved and I don't think the diamonds are worth it.”

Frowning, Niall turns to Zayn. “It's the job we came here for. I want to see it through.”

Louis watches as Niall's words sink into Zayn and Liam. He sees the exact moment Niall realizes it to when a spark of triumph passed through his eyes. They're both ridiculous when it comes to finishing jobs. They never will quit one if things get too messy, instead choosing to let the added complications become part of their fun. There was a time when Louis would have done the same, but now he's got Harry to think about.

“Well, you lads have fun,” he says. “I'll arrange your funerals for you if this goes badly.”

He's halfway to the door when Niall asks, “Do you really think Harry would be okay with you walking away to let an old friend of his die?” 

Spinning around, Louis narrows his eyes. It's not like Niall to use Harry against him – not like any of them – and Louis' not sure how to deal with it. Niall can't be that desperate to get a couple of diamonds. He knows Louis will do anything to protect Harry, will do anything to make sure Harry's safety is not compromised. This job was a stretch, letting Harry get involved, and they know that.

Usually, they agree with him and respect his decisions, even if Zayn does comment that he should ask Harry his opinion first. The thing, Louis and Harry have rules for this sort of thing that they agreed on. Some of them Harry didn't like and some of them Louis didn't like, but they agreed and Louis doesn't have to ask Harry's permission to not get him involved. It's a rule. Harry does not get involved unless Louis thinks there's a zero percent chance of him being hurt in any way.

He's never let Harry get involved before – usually keeps most details of jobs out of Harry's mind – and this wasn't something he wanted Harry involved in to begin with. Now it's gotten more dangerous and he's going to get Harry out of there as soon as he possibly can.

“Chardin isn't a good person. I don't think Harry would want to help someone like him,” he grits out.

“Don't think that matters to him. He's practically married to you, Louis. And you've killed people.”

Louis' eyes widen, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. He's aware he's not the best person in the world and it was a long hard process coming to terms with the fact that Harry still loved him. It's something he still has issues with because he is a _bad_ person. He is a criminal. He has _killed_ people. He's stolen, lied, and cheated his way through life since he was seventeen. He'll never be at peace with anything that he's done, but somehow someway Harry is.

He'll never understand it, but Harry has managed to look past all the terrible things he's done and loves him. They've talked about it a lot and Harry's always been honest with how he feels about it. He doesn't agree with and doesn't understand most of what Louis does, but he understands that it's Louis' life and there's nothing he can do to change that. 

Still, Louis has gone out of his way to cut back on what he does and he's only ever killed when he absolutely has to. He's never going to be at complete peace with who he is and what he's done, but Harry loves him and they make it work. 

But not once has anyone ever used this against him. Not like Niall has room to judge. Harry's friends with all of them and they're just as bad as he is. Niall's worse. He was a hired gun for a long time – a professionally trained killer. He killed people for money. Niall more than any of them knows what it's like to regret life choices. Hell, Louis has spent countless hours drunkenly crying to Niall about how he doesn't understand how Harry loves him. And Niall's just gone and used his biggest insecurity against him.

He never understood how Niall ended up doing this with his life because Niall is one of the best people he knows. Niall always seemed so caring, smart and kind – not like you'd expect a conman to be. When Niall had admitted that he was a hit-man he'd been so shocked and he's spent years trying to find the parts of Niall that allowed him to be that. He spent so many nights trying to figure out how the Niall he was friends with – trusted more than almost anyone – could have been a cold-hearted killer.

He knew, of course, that Niall could turn off his emotions and do things that most people could never even imagine doing – they can all do that. He's seen it, been first row for it, but normally Niall is calm and collected, happy and selfless. It's a front, Louis knows. They all have them, but he'd only seen small glimpses of the darkness inside of Niall. 

Still, he'd seen it before. This is a whole new thing. Something that has him reconsidering everything he ever thought about him. He'd never once thought Niall could be capable of using his insecurities against him – didn't think he'd really be able to hold Harry against him – but he's just done it – _is_ doing it. Someone that he thought was one of his best friends just broke his heart and he gets it now. He understands how Niall could have done all those horrible things because he was able to say something like _that_ to his friend.

“Fuck you,” he growls as Liam hisses out, “Niall.”

Zayn stays silent, but his eyes are flicking between the two to them, looking for a sign that he'll have to get between them.

Niall at least has the decency to look like he regrets having said it. Louis doesn't think he actually does. “Louis, I'm sorry, but you know I'm right.”

That's the problem. He is right. If Harry were to know the whole truth he'd still want to help Chardin, even if it was only long enough for Niall to find the diamonds. They could not tell Harry, make up some excuse as to why they're leaving without the diamonds. He'd probably see right through that.

Or he could tell Harry, send him home with the promise of saving Chardin's life, but he's got a feeling Harry wouldn't go home easily and if he did he'd find his way right back in it. And if for some reason Harry decided to not be himself and basically said fuck it, he'd still insist that they find the diamonds. 

Basically, he's going to have to tell Harry the truth and he's more than likely going to have to finish up this job.

Clenching his jaw, he rolls his eyes. “We'll stay to find the diamonds,” he grits out. “I _will_ tell Harry the truth. And when this is over I will _never_ see you in my house again. I swear to god, Niall, if you so much as think about showing up I will shoot you.”

Something dark crosses Niall's features as he stares at Louis. Eventually, he gives a slight nod and turns to Liam. “Were you able to find anywhere that he could be hiding the diamonds?”

Liam looks between them with concerned eyes before saying, “He's got a warehouse and a couple of buildings in the city that he owns as well as a property in Nice, plus his place in Russia. As far as I can tell that's it. I”m still trying to crack that encryption on the file Louis found, but I-.”

“Wait,” Louis says, holding a hand up. “What about this would Niall not like?”

Liam and Zayn share a worried look, but don't answer. Niall raises his eyebrows, holding his arm out. “Yeah, lads, what am I not going to like? You know, aside from the fact that the Russians are trying to kill him.”

Zayn clears his throat, sitting back down. “While I was in Russia I learned something about someone.”

“Yeah, Chardin,” Louis says. Zayn shakes his head. “Then who?”

“Masha Boykov.”

“Uh, what?” he and Niall both ask.

Sighing, Zayn says, “I'm sorry, Niall, but she wasn't who you thought. Like at all.”

“What does that mean?”

Zayn waits for them to sit back down before explaining. “She's been hired by the Russians to find the diamonds and kill Chardin.”

“Niall,” Liam begins, resting his arms on his knees, “when you were with her did you say anything about Chardin and the diamonds?”

“What do you think?” he replies with pursed lips. “Of course not.”

“So it's just a coincidence?” 

“Regretfully so,” Niall mutters.

“Regardless,” Zayn starts, “she's not an official of any kind. Pretty sure she's some sort of spy, though. But I think for this she's most likely is a hired gun.” Niall snorts, rolling his eyes. Zayn narrows his eyes, watching Niall intently as he adds, “We need to watch our backs. Especially you Niall.”

Niall sighs, “Yeah.”

Liam watches him suspiciously. “Zayn and I will check these places out. You two – try not to kill each other – but you know, keep Chardin alive.”

It's easier said than done, but they agree and the ride back to Chardin's chateau is silent.

**

**Two days later**

Harry didn't take to the news as badly as Louis had thought, but he had agreed that they shouldn't let the Russian government kill Chardin and refused to go home, breaking one of Louis' rules of their relationships. There wasn't much Louis could do about it – Harry's as stubborn as Louis is, if not more – but try to make sure Harry isn't around when anything bad goes down. They'd argued about it for an hour before Louis got too tired and gave up. (Harry had then started laughing hysterically that the woman Niall had been seeing turned out to basically be a Russian spy. Louis had laughed with him.)

One of the things Louis's doing to help keep Harry away from danger is keeping him away from Chardin as much as possible. Yesterday Louis took him to the Eiffel Tower, had wine at the top of the tower at Champagne Bar. Then they went to Champs Elysees before having lunch at Cafe Panis. They visited Notre Dame, the Louvre and ended the day with a nice romantic dinner on the terrace of La Petite Cour.

Today what Louis has planned is a little less touristy, more laid back and peaceful. They started the morning at the Palace of Versailles and are now enjoying leisurely walks through Quartier Latin. It's less touristy, mostly filled with students, but it's more relaxing than the crowds they dealt with yesterday. There were some second hand book sellers that Harry had insisted they stop at. He bought several books – all in French that he claims he can read. 

They'd had a quiet picnic for lunch in the Gardens of Luxembourg, like Harry had mentioned he'd wanted to do a few days ago and are now strolling hand-in-hand toward the Pantheon. The crowd is picking up and as they get closer to the Pantheon, the architecture is becoming more medieval. 

They've both been quiet for a while – Harry taking in the area, Louis taking in Harry. It's relaxing and Louis isn't worrying about the job or all the ways it could go wrong and how it could affect Harry. He's enjoying life, the way he can really only do around Harry.

“You know, I've got a thing planned for tonight,” he says eventually, leaning his head toward Harry.

“Oh really?” Harry asks, eyebrow arching. “Is it romantic?”

“I've heard that it is,” Louis answers. “It's like a nice little boat around the city,” he adds, making a circling gesture with his hand. “You know, a _cruise_. Down the Seine.”

“Oh,” Harry drags out. “Sounds nice.”

Louis nods. “It's a dinner cruise. About two hours. Figured it'd be nice.” Harry hums contentedly, grasping Louis' hand harder. “Figure tomorrow we can just sort of meander around until we need to be at the Moulin Rouge.”

Harry stops walking, causing the people behind them to grumble as they have to pass around them. “You got us in at Moulin Rouge?” he asks, turning toward him. “How? You know you have to book well in advance.”

“I have connections, you know,” he answers, shrugging. “It's no big deal. Just knew you'd want to go.”

Smiling, Harry says, “I love you.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “It's just cabaret, Harry. Nothing to get all sappy about.”

“Yes, but you listen when I talk.”

“Of course I listen to you, love,” he replies, brow furrowed and slightly hurt. “Do you really think I don't?”

Harry's eyes widen. “What? No. That's not what I meant. I just meant that I like when you're willing to do something because you heard me even though you don't give a shit about it.”

Louis swallows, purses his lips and tries to not pull Harry into a kiss. “Maybe we'll go to Disneyland instead.”

Harry barks out a laugh. “I'd be fine with that too. I want to meet Peter Pan and Tiana.”

“Come on,” Louis says, rolling his eyes and pulling Harry back into a walk.

“I'm just saying, I wouldn't mind Disneyland,” Harry continues. “And don't think I don't know what you're doing.”

“What am I doing?” Louis asks innocently, leading them down a less crowded street. 

Letting out a soft laugh, Harry says, “You're trying to keep me away from Henri because you think that will keep me out of danger.”

Louis stops in the middle of the street and turns toward Harry. “See, you know me. I know you,” he says, gesturing between them. “This is why our relationship works.”

“Is it?” Harry snorts. “I thought it was because we love and trust and share with each other.”

“It's a bit of both.”

Harry hums, nodding. He takes a step closer, bringing up his free hand to cup Louis' jaw. “I think you worry too much, but I do appreciate you're so dedicated to keeping me safe.”

“You should be,” Louis mutters, as Harry kisses him softly.

“Although,” Harry starts as he pulls back, “I feel like you should know that I could be mugged or killed right here in the middle of this crowded street.”

“I think you're-.”

Louis is cut off by the sound of gunshots coming from inside one of the buildings behind him. The people around them are screaming and running around, pushing into him and Harry. There's the sound of more gunshots. It's coming from a building behind them. Louis chances a look at it. It looks like it houses cheap flats.

He turns back to Harry and yells, “You had to say it, didn't you?”

Harry's gotten a lot better at dealing with situations like these over the years, not that he's had reason to, and Louis is extremely glad that he's so calm when he asks, “You're going to go in there, aren't you?”

Louis nods, pulling his gun out from his waistband. “I'm assuming you're going to follow?”

Harry nods and follows him toward the building. When they get to the door, Louis stops and turns toward Harry. “You know what to do if things get bad? Just get the hell-.” He cuts himself off when he sees that Harry's still holding the bag of books. “What-. Wh-. What are you going to do with that?”

Eyebrows furrowed, Harry looks down at the bag. “I bought them. I'm not dropping them here.”

“What are you going to do with them? Use them as a defense?”

“I can swing them at someone's head. There's enough in here to knock someone out, I bet,” Harry says with a proud smile.

Louis smiles back. “And as much as I'd like to test that out I hope no one gets that close to you.”

Another round of gunshots go off and Louis turns back to the door and wrenches it open. “Stay close!” he yells back at Harry as he goes through the door, following the sounds of crying.

It sounds like a child, but Louis isn't the best at deciphering types of crying, but he'll be damned if he lets someone shoot at children. The sounds lead them up a flight of stairs and to a flat with a broken down door.

Louis motions for Harry to stay quiet as he slowly steps over broken wood and into the flat. There's a woman lying in a pool of blood near the dingy sofa. There's yelling in French around the corner. He tells Harry to stay by the door as he gets close to the wall and peeks around it.

It's the kitchen and a man around their age is in the middle of the room, tied to a chair. There's a man with a gun to his head and another man with his back to Louis, but he can still make out that he's holding a crying little girl in his arms with a gun pointed at her head as he yells at who Louis can only assume is her father.

He goes back to the door to the flat and whispers, “I'm pretty sure they're threatening to kill a little girl for whatever information they think her father has.”

Harry's eyes widen, glancing to the woman's dead body. “What are you going to do?”

“There's two guys with guns, but one of them is holding the girl with a gun to her head,” he says, shaking his head. “I have no idea. Do you think if I free the girl you can grab her?”

Harry nods. “Sure, but once I grab her what do I do?” 

Louis glances around the flat. There's a hall to on the other side of the room. “Take her to one of the bedrooms and wait. It shouldn't take me too long to deal with this.”

As soon as he's done speaking there's a gunshot and the yelling stops, while the little girl's crying gets louder. “Shit,” he spits out, turning on his heel.

Before he can take a step the men are walking into the room, dragging the girl by her hair. When they spot Louis and Harry, they freeze eying the gun Louis' got pointed at the closest man's head.

“Let her go,” he demands, hoping they speak English.

“As soon as you shoot one of us the other will shoot her,” the closest man says, accent heavy. “You should let us go and you will live.”

Louis narrows his eyes. “Come on, it's a little girl. You've already killed her parents. It's probably her only family, so just let her go.”

“What? And fight someone our own size?”

“You could.”

The man nods back at the other, who shoves the little girl toward them and then immediately shoots at Louis. Thankfully, in his haste to catch the girl, it brought him out of the bullet's path. He doesn't have time to make sure she's okay, so he pushes her back toward Harry.

He quickly aims and shoots the man closest to him between the eyes, dodging a bullet coming at him. The man that's still alive dives back into the kitchen. Louis fires at him as he dives and hears a yell as a bullet makes contact with his leg. Louis gets close to the wall, making sure he's in a position to see into the kitchen. The man is clutching at his calf, paying no attention to Louis.

Quickly, Louis raises his gun, spins into the kitchen and shoots the man in the neck. He watches as the man falls back onto the floor, spluttering as he bleeds out.

“That's what you get for messing with children.”

He turns and stalks out of the room, looking for Harry and the girl. He checks the hall outside the flat and there's no sign of either of them, so Harry must've found a way to get her to a bedroom.

When he walks into the first one, he immediately spots Harry huddled in the corner, the girl clutching to his chest, hiding her face in the crook of his neck as he whispers to her in French.

Harry looks up, eyes misty. “Her name is Claire,” he tells Louis. The girl – _Claire_ – mutters in French and Harry nods. He says something back to her in French and the only thing Louis is able to make out is his own name and the word good. (He knows enough French to get by, but it's been years since he's actually used it.) “She's six,” Harry continues. “And her parents were her only family,” he adds, gravely. 

Louis nods, taking hesitant steps toward them. “What do we do?”

Harry's eyebrows almost hit his hairline. “You're asking me?” Louis nods. “I don't know,” he says, talking over Claire's muttering. “We can't leave her and she just watched both her parents die. We could take her to an orphanage I guess, but they'll ask questions and questions will lead-.”

“Them to me, yeah, I got that.” Harry gives him a look that has Louis immediately shaking his head. “No. Harry, _no_. We can't take her with us. You know that. We can't just take a little girl across country lines, either. Be smart about this.”

Frowning, Harry says, “That's not exactly what I was saying. I just think we should take her for now. She's not letting up on her grip here and I don't feel comfortable with either of the other options.”

“We need to decide fast,” Louis says, glancing out the window. Harry continues staring up at him and Claire pulls herself closer to him. “Did she say what was happening in there?”

Harry starts to speak, but Claire says, “They wanted to know where someone was.”

Louis lets out a sigh of relief that she speaks English. “Do you know who they were looking for?”

She nods, tightening her grip on Harry's shirt. “The guy daddy works for.”

“And who is that?” Harry asks, rubbing her back.

“Mr. Chardin.”

Louis' eyes flick to Harry, who slumps forward. “Okay, well, that's an interesting turn of events.”

“Louis,” Harry chastises. “We have to take her now,” he adds.

“We should tell Henri as well.” Harry nods. “And get the others involved.”

Harry nods again. “Claire, sweetheart, will you come with me and Louis?” Claire shakes her head. “Why not?” She says something in French that Louis doesn't catch. “Well, I told you Louis' good like me. I promise we'll not let anything happen to you. We'll get you chocolate.”

The bribing seems to get her to agree as she answers him in French. He nods at Louis and says, “Can you pack a bag of some of her clothes quickly, please? I still don't think she's going to let go of me.”

“Yeah,” he says, already starting toward her dresser. “On the way to Henri's I'll ring the lads and let them know what's happened.”

Harry doesn't respond so Louis turns. Claire has leaned a bit away from Harry and is giggling at something he's whispering to her in French. For a moment Louis forgets that her parents are lying dead in the other room and his heart melts. Harry's amazing with children and they love Harry and sometimes Louis wishes children was something he hadn't been so adamant about not having because it wouldn't be safe. Harry would be an amazing father and it's not fair to anyone that he doesn't get to be one. Louis' just a paranoid arsehole and he shouldn't have blacklisted children for them.

Those thoughts stay with him as he packs some of Claire's things for her. After he's got the bag packed and Harry's carrying Claire down the street, whispering calming words to her as she snuggles into him, he texts the lads with an S.O.S and those thoughts don't die completely, but he's able to push them fair enough to the back of his mind because he has to for both their sakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [thoughtlessblogger](http://www.thoughtlessblogger.tumblr.com)


	3. Well They Tried To Kill My Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall and Liam are both in trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I just want to say that Interpol does not work the way it does here.

**The same day**

“We should ask her more. She's got to know more than she's letting on.”

“Are you _insane_? She's a _child_!”

“And children often know more than they let on. Let me-.”

“No,” Harry growls, stepping in front of the closed door that leads to the bedroom he put Claire in. “I like you a lot and I consider you a friend, but I'm sorry, Zayn. You are not going in there.”

Zayn stops walking toward the door, jaw set and eyes hard. “I'm saying she has to know more and we should ask her.”

Harry stares Zayn down, crossing his arm over his chest. The two of them have been arguing about this since they got here. The others hadn't immediately noticed Claire's presence when they all met up at Chardin's since they were more preoccupied with getting him and finding a safe place to go.

When they'd told Chardin that they needed to leave his home because people were looking for him he hadn't seem too surprised, but he was still panicking a bit. Still, it didn't take them long to get him out and to the safe house Liam had procured for them at the start of this job. 

The safe house is in a shitty one story house just outside of Paris. There's only four bedrooms, the wallpaper is shredding, most of the lights don't work, and most everything is dusty, but it's safe – for now at least.

It wasn't until they were settled here that they noticed Claire. She'd been silently clinging to Harry the whole time and Harry had immediately gotten defensive when Zayn started trying to ask her questions. Claire had seemed to shrink into herself even more, running back to Harry and crying to him in French. Harry'd only been able to calm her down by getting her away from everyone else.

No one can agree on what to do and now they're arguing about Claire. Liam doesn't think she knows a thing. Niall isn't sure this is connected to their problem. Zayn seems to think Claire knows more than she's saying and basically wants to interrogate her. And Harry – well, Harry is attached already and is doing what he thinks is best.

“She's got to know something,” Zayn says.

Harry deflates a bit. “She's a little girl that just watched her parents be killed in front of her, Zayn. She's been through enough today.”

Harry's certainly right about that. That doesn't mean she doesn't know more, though. “Maybe we should just leave her alone for the night,” Louis suggests, stepping between Zayn and Harry. “Let her calm down a bit.”

Turning so he's facing Louis fully, Zayn asks, “What exactly did she say?”

“She said they were looking for the person her father worked for, but she's what? Six? I doubt she'd know more,” he says earnestly. “This isn't me agreeing with Harry because I love him. It's me agreeing with Harry because this is a _child_. If she does know more we can find out tomorrow and we'll do it calmly and not scare her again, okay?”

Zayn lets out a deep breath. “Okay, okay.”

He walks away, sitting next to Liam on the dingy sofa. Harry mouths a thank you to him as he walks by to sit at the table in the room.

“Okay, now that _that's_ settled,” he starts, moving to stand next to Niall, “what in the hell is going on?”

Niall snorts. “We know what's going on, Louis.”

“Yes, but _why_?” he asks, turning to Chardin. Staring down at him, he adds, “Why do it? Any of it?”

Raising his eyebrows, Chardin responds, “Why not? I'm a politician. It's what we do.”

Liam rolls his eyes, scoffing. “That's a shit excuse.”

“Look, I'll admit what I was doing was less than moral,” Chardin begins. “I was selling stolen goods underground in France. I was making money, helping myself. And I knew that if the French government went through with that trade deal and started getting diamonds directly from Russia it'd be harder for me to find buyers in France. That's why I tanked the deal, but I didn't know they'd want me dead over it.”

Louis sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Okay, so what do we do now?” He turns to Niall. “You wanted to stay and find the diamonds, but things just got worse. I'm taking Harry and going home.”

Liam and Zayn and even Harry start protesting, but Niall only takes a deep breath. “I lied,” he says, loud enough to stop the others talking. “About most of this.”

“What does that mean?” Zayn inquires with narrowed eyes. When Niall doesn't immediately explain, he adds, “Seriously, Niall, what does that mean? You lied?”

Niall licks his lips, turns away from them, then back toward them, running a hand through his hair and letting a harsh breath out. “Okay, look. I lied about why we're really here,” he starts, eyes wide and intense. “You know my friend from Interpol? The one that helped cover for Louis? He's cashing in the favor I owe him.”

“Thought he owed you a favor and that's why he helped us?” Liam asks. Niall only shrugs in response. “Will you elaborate please?”

“The French government got a tip a few months back that the Russians wanted Chardin dead since he was stealing diamonds and fucked them over on the trade deal,” Niall says. “Understandably so, the French don't agree with what he's done, but they want to prosecute him, not have him killed. It's an international sort of thing and one they can't really deal with on their own so they called in Interpol for help.”

“Which is when your friend comes in,” Liam finishes.

Niall nods. “The thing is, the Russians don't much care for Interpol. I don't know why, but they don't. All I know is Harvey hunted me down and asked for help. I said no at first, but he told me about the diamonds and the rest of it. Anyway, that's why I was in Russia. Doing some basic reconnaissance.”

“Well, obviously that didn't go to plan,” Louis comments.

“No,” Niall says, shaking his head. “Turns out the Russians know Interpol is looking to stop this. I found out mostly nothing and then the thing with Masha happened.”

“And then you got us involved,” Zayn says, standing up. “I don't understand. _Why_ get us involved?”

Niall scratches at his jaw. Louis glances at Harry. He doesn't even seem to be paying attention, drawing absentmindedly on the table with his finger. Louis moves to sit next to him, gaining his attention long enough to exchange small smiles.

“Interpol was getting no where,” Niall continues. “And they thought if they could find the diamonds and give them back to Russia things would die down. They couldn't very well ask Chardin where they were. Can't trust him to be honest even if his life _is_ in danger. So that was the new goal: keep Chardin alive and find the diamonds. I knew I needed help with that, so I got you lads involved.”

“By lying,” Liam hisses. 

Zayn starts pacing, scolding Niall the whole time. “Niall, you know how dangerous it is not to give us all the information. Why would you do that? I just don't understand why you did this. You could have told us.”

“Would you have helped, though?”

Zayn stops pacing, turns to Niall, mouth snapped shut. The answer is no, they wouldn't have. This isn't what they do and Niall knows that. The only way they would have agreed is if – there is no way. Niall lying to them is the only way to get them involved. Louis understands that part of it, but it doesn't make him happier.

“What I don't understand,” Liam starts, “is why you're working with Interpol in the first place? It's not like they would have actually let you keep the diamonds.”

“It doesn't matter now.”

“Not to mention, this is dangerous,” Liam continues, ignoring Niall's comment. “We're criminals, Niall. These guys have every reason to arrest _us_ and Louis' supposed to be dead. There's nothing stopping them from getting us. You've really endangered us here, Niall. Do you not get that?”

“ _Of course_ I get that,” Niall spits. “But this guy is a friend of mine and he's helped me on more than one occasion. He helped Louis. And he's the only one that knows that we're involved.”

Zayn moves back to the sofa. “So he says,” he scoffs. “We can't trust these people, Niall.”

And just like that it hits Louis. Niall lied to them. Zayn and Liam have a point – a very good one – but it's not the thing Louis' truly mad about. He lied to them about what was really going on and he got Harry involved under false pretenses. Niall let Louis get Harry involved in international issues that Interpol is involved in. 

They have an agreement that Harry won't be involved in anything dangerous. Niall knows that. He knows how Louis feels and he completely disregarded that. Plus, Harry's his friend. By lying to them, he's put his friend in danger. 

“You fucking bastard,” he growls, pushing himself out of the chair. “You lied!”

Niall raises an eyebrow. “Yeah...?”

“You let me get Harry involved,” he continues. “You know how I feel about this and you knew this was dangerous. I can't believe you.”

Niall, not for the first time since being in Paris, looks like he regrets his decision. “Yes, I did, Louis, but-.”

“I don't fucking care what your reasoning was. If you-.”

He's cut off by Harry reaching up and grabbing his elbow. “Sit back down, babe.”

Louis looks down at him, sees his calm, unbothered expression, which only pisses him off more. “Why are you so calm about this?” he demands, pulling his arm away. “Why aren't you angry like the rest of us?”

Harry purses his lips, breathing out through his nose and looks at Niall. Louis' eyes follow. Niall gives an imperceptible nod, then looks down at the ground. 

When Louis turns back to Harry, he's staring up at Louis with the innocent look he always gets when he knows he's done something that will piss Louis off. “What the hell did you do?”

“He didn't lie to me,” Harry admits. “In fact, I knew before he even went to Russia.”

That's not-. Can it be possible? It would explain a few things, like why Harry was so worried when he'd found out Niall had been arrested, why he pushed Louis more to agree to the job, why Niall included him in so much of the planning and why Harry hasn't seemed surprised about anything that's happened.

“The only thing I didn't know was that it was Henri,” Harry adds.

He doesn't know what to say. It was easier when he thought Niall was the only one who'd done wrong here, but what Harry did was possibly worse and more stupid than what Niall did. Harry willingly involved himself in something he knew was dangerous and he kept it all from Louis. 

Harry _lied_ and Louis doesn't quite know how to deal with that.

Pursing his lips, he turns away from Harry without a word. Niall's still staring at the ground, but Zayn and Liam are watching with hesitant eyes. Louis continues staring straight past them at the wall. When it becomes evident he's not going to say anything, Liam clears his throat.

“Um, so I cracked the encrypted file,” he says. “It's only a list of locations, but one of those buildings is the one you two found Claire in.”

Louis perks up, but doesn't respond. “You don't think he hid the diamonds there, do you?” Liam asks.

“Does that explain the other places listed?” Zayn inquires. 

“No idea,” Liam shrugs. 

“Why don't we ask him?” Louis says, gesturing to Chardin, who's been sitting silently in the corner since they last spoke to him.

Niall's head shoots up, eyes wide as he stalks over to Chardin. Leaning down, bracing himself on the back of the chair, he says, “Who was Claire's father?” Chardin doesn't answer immediately and Niall growls out, “Answer me.”

“He was just an assistant,” Chardin says. “But a very trusted one.”

“What are those addresses?”

“A list of places the diamonds could possibly be.”

Louis snorts. “ _Could possibly be?_ What the hell does that mean?”

Chardin tilts his head to look around Niall's body. “I don't even know where they're at. When I found out the Russians were on to me I wanted them hidden, but I didn't want to know where exactly in case they found me first.”

“So what, you had someone else hide them randomly?” Chardin nods. “And Claire's father was the one to do that?” He nods again. “And he put his own address down as a possibility?”

Niall straightens up, turning back to them. “No one would think to look there.” He grimaces at himself when he realizes what he said. “Well, I guess that was the idea.”

No one says anything for a while, until Louis claps his hands together once and says, “Okay. Niall, Interpol still wants the diamonds, yes?”

“Yeah,” Niall nods.

“Chardin, you have no idea where they are, except that they're at one of these locations?” Chardin nods. “Well, if Interpol want the diamonds, we'll give them the diamonds.”

When he looks at Niall, he's regarding him with a raised eyebrow. Louis slightly bows his head, telling him to take over. 

He may still be mad – but now he's mostly pissed at Harry. Niall went about this the wrong way, but he did what he thought he had to. That doesn't mean he's forgiven. (Louis still hasn't forgiven over the thing he said the other day.) It's Niall's job, he should be the one making the calls.

“Okay, here's what's going to happen,” Niall says. Pointing at Harry, he explains, “Harry, you stay here tomorrow with Claire. Talk to her, see if she knows anything else. See if she knows anything about who those men were. Anything. If she doesn't that's fine, but try.”

He hears Harry agree and has to fight the urge to not look at him.

“Liam, you stay here and do whatever it is you do. See if there's any hint that Claire's father left as to where the diamonds are and see if you can hack into Russia's databases or whatever. See what their status is.. Where Masha is.”

Liam nods and Niall turns to Zayn. “Stay here and help Liam and protect this bastard,” he says, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Chardin. 

“Anything to get me out of Paris quicker,” Zayn mutters and Louis is suddenly hit with the memories of the last time the two of them were here together – of _Perrie_. He doesn't have time to dwell on it, though.

“Louis.” Niall turns to him. “In the morning you and I will start checking the places on the list. We'll start with where you found Claire.”

Louis nods, waits for Niall to tell them they're done for the moment then walks away, ignoring Harry reaching out for him.

**

Later that night, he's in the main room with Claire, drawing. He's shit at it and she'd probably have more fun with Zayn, but he's avoiding Harry, still pissed off that Harry lied. Objectively, he knows that Harry had his reasons behind it and they'll have to talk about it eventually, but right now he's just so tired and angry about everything and he'd much rather sit on the floor and draw with Claire.

It didn't take him long to get her to warm up to him when he brought her some food. He hadn't known what she liked at all, but he assumed any sort of chocolate would be okay. Normally, he wouldn't condone giving chocolate to a child before they've had something of more sustenance, but she watched her parents die today. She deserves it.

Once he'd given her the chocolate, she'd started telling him about her favorite places to go and he told her about Dog and it sort of blossomed from there and somehow they ended up doing this. He's shit at drawing, but it's kept him away from Harry for the evening.

Of course this is when he happens to look up and spot Harry leaning in the doorway to their room, watching them with a warm look. Louis knows that look. It's his “I love children and I want them, but we agreed not to” look. Louis knows that look well. He has his own variation of it. It doesn't help that Harry's already gotten attached to her. It doesn't help that Louis can feel himself starting to get attached and seeing Harry give him that look is making it all so much worse.

When they'd agreed years ago that having children would be too dangerous for them he knew it would be a hard decision to stick to. There's a lot of talk about women's biological clocks ticking, but Louis thinks the same thing happens with men – at least it's happening for both him and Harry. (Of course, he knows that logically they could have children at any time. It's not like they'd be relying on science, but it's the principle of the thing.) They both love children and many years ago Louis was convinced he'd have several of his own by this age. It was hard on him coming to terms with that fact that children was an unlikely thing for him and it was harder inflicting that on Harry, but Harry had insisted that he was okay with it because he'd rather have him.

Louis has never been sure on how long that would last for Harry – always had a fear in the back of his mind that Harry would decide that children were more important than Louis, but that's not happened yet. And over the years, Louis has realized that they've found little ways to cope with their want of children.

Harry got them a dog. Louis didn't comment that it was only after Zayn had mentioned having a puppy was a lot like having a child. And it worked for a while. They both work closely without a lot of children's charities and take almost every opportunity they can to actually spend time with the children. That worked for a while, too. And Louis noticed that whenever he started to feel like something was missing from his life that's when he would pull another job. The feeling would go away, but it'd be back eventually and he'd do another job.

He suspects that Harry gets that feeling too. He can't be for sure, but every couple of months Harry will pop up with an idea of a holiday they can take together. He schedules almost every last detail, keeping them busy until the moment they leave. Louis' hasn't asked why he does it and he won't because they don't talk about this. Ignoring it is somehow easier for them – most of the time. 

After years of thinking he'd never find love he found Harry. Then after years of thinking that a relationship between them wouldn't work he was proven wrong again. They've been through a lot and they love each other. He's got no doubt about that, but he knows that the want of having children is so strong sometimes that he thinks about saying fuck it and risking it anyway. But then he remembers exactly why they agreed not too and he drops the idea, wonders if Harry ever feels the same and then he realizes in moments like this that Harry does feel that way.

Harry's got that face he gets around children on right now and Louis can't ignore it, can feel his anger from earlier melting into a slight annoyance. He meets Harry's eye, gives a small smile, then sighs. “I'm sorry, Miss Claire, but I've got to go talk to Harry for a minute.”

She looks up from what she's drawing and nods quickly before her attention returns to the paper. Sighing, Louis pushed himself up and walks over to Harry. 

Harry's not leaning on the door frame, having turned so he's facing Louis. “You're good with her,” he says, quietly.

“She's a cute kid,” he replies, almost as quiet.

They're both silent. It's almost eerily silent for a small house holding six adults and one six year old as they stand in the hall staring at each other, waiting for the other to be the first to apologize. It won't be Louis. He didn't lie, he didn't do anything wrong this time.

“Look,” Harry starts eventually, “about earlier – about _everything_ – I shouldn't have lied. I should have told you.”

“Why didn't you?” he asks, eyes boring into Harry's. “You should have.”

Harry nods. “Probably, yeah, but Niall asked me not to because he knew you and Zayn and Liam wouldn't agree if you knew the truth. I agreed. And Niall _is_ my friend and he was asking me for help.”

“It's dangerous, Harry,” he says with no real conviction behind it. He'd thought his issue was with Harry and it was to an extent, but it all goes back to Niall. He lied, tricked them into this, and now he's found out that he'd asked Harry not to tell, knowing damn well he wouldn't. He went behind Louis' back. 

“I know and I'm so so sorry, but I can't change it now.”

Harry's words are quiet, but Louis can hear the seriousness behind them. It's impossible to stay mad at Harry, anyway. He lets out a breath, body slumping. “Yeah,” he says. “I'm sorry, too.”

“You don't have to be,” Harry says, shaking his head. “I was the one wrong here. I _should_ have told you.”

They can debate this all night and they won't agree on anything, so he says, “Let's just agree this is a fucked up situation and move on.”

Harry nods. “Do you want me to go home?”

For a second Louis doesn't know what he means, but then he remembers that the rule is if things get too dangerous Harry leaves. Unfortunately, Louis doesn't think that's much of an option right now. “Normally, I'd say yes,” he says. “But Claire is most comfortable around you and Zayn's right. She might know more than we think. You're the only one that could possibly get it out of her.”

“You probably could,” Harry tells him, glancing over at Claire. “She seems to have taken a liking to you.”

“I gave her chocolate,” he shrugs. “Doesn't count.”

Smiling, Harry starts to say something, but Claire chooses that moment to come running over. She stops when she gets to them, staring up and holding a paper out to Harry. “I made you something,” she says shyly.

“Oh,” Harry says slowly, eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “Thank you,” he says, taking the drawing. “Is it me?” She nods. “It's beautiful. Thank you,” he adds, smiling widely. 

Ducking her head, Claire mumbles, “You're welcome” before running back in the other room.

Louis leans over to look at the picture. He has to clap a hand over his mouth to stop the bark of laughter from coming out. “It looks like a frog,” he says, quickly placing the hand back on his mouth when Harry's brow furrows.

He pulls the paper closer to his face to inspect it. “At least I'm a beautiful frog,” he says after sometime. Louis doesn't stop the laughing this time and Harry's solemn demeanor quickly vanishes as he laughs too.

Louis doesn't know how long they stand there laughing, doesn't realize they're even still standing there until Zayn walks out of Liam and Niall's shared room with a quirked eyebrow. “What's going on out here?”

“Claire drew a picture of Harry.”

“Here,” Harry says, holding it out for Zayn to look at.

Zayn's eyebrows shoot up. “It looks like a frog,” he comments walking off, sending them into another bout of laughter.

**

**A day later**

The building has been vacated, left empty, boarded up and they've not found shit in the hour they've been here so far. There's six floors, plus a basement and they have to search every single bit of it. 

Louis doesn't like this sort of thing anyway, but it'd be a hell of a lot more enjoyable if he and Niall were speaking. Things are still weird between them. Louis' still angry that Niall lied, got Harry involved, and for what he said a few nights ago. They haven't spoken about it.

“I can't believe you lied to me and had Harry lying to me!” he wants to scream. That wouldn't do anything, but make things between them worse and he's smart enough to know that starting a fight when they're out on a job isn't what he should do.

“You know, if something was here don't you think the police would have found it by now,” he says instead, removing a painting off the wall.

Niall hums. “Still need to look.”

Louis shuffles to his right, glancing back over his shoulder. Niall's moving the furniture around in hopes of finding a secret compartment of some sort. Rolling his eyes, he takes the next picture off the wall. “I just think this is a massive waste of time.”

“No one said you had to come,” Niall retorts.

Snorting, Louis says, “I'd not be here at all if you hadn't lied to me.”

As soon as it's out of his mouth he regrets having said it right now. He didn't want to have an argument, not right now, but his anger is still there and the more he thinks about it the more betrayed he feels. Niall is his best friend and he betrayed that friendship. And even if they do sort through this, Louis' not sure he'll ever forget what Niall said to him.

He hears Niall let out a frustrated breath. Louis turns to him. He's leaning over, hands bracing himself on the arm of the sofa, head hanging between his arms. “You know what, Louis,” he starts, looking up. “I'm sorry that you feel attacked or whatever it is you feel. I admit that I was wrong, but I don't feel bad about it, okay. But we have a job to do and that's what I'm going to focus on.”

Louis bites back every scathing comment that comes to mind. He doesn't feel _attacked_. He feels betrayed. He's hurt and angry and sad that someone he thought was a friend could say something like that to all while lying right to his face. He has a lot he wants to say to Niall, but Niall's right. The job comes first.

“We'll cover more ground if we split up,” he says, walking past Niall toward the door, ignoring the sad look to Niall's features. “I'll call you if I find anything.”

With that he walks out of the flat and up the stairs to the next floor.

**

He's not sure how long he's been looking or how much of the building he's looked over when he hears gunshots coming from somewhere in the building. He pauses, door to the bedroom in this flat half open, and listens. He hears a couple more shots and what sounds like Niall yelling something and that gets him moving, panic coursing through him.

Running through the flat he's in, he makes sure his gun is ready for use. When he reaches the hall, he yells, “Niall!” stopping and looking either direction. Predictably, Niall doesn't respond, but he hears another shot. It sounds more distant now, but like it's coming from above him. So he runs up the stairs to his left.

He runs and quickly scans over every floor, no trace of Niall, but he can still hear the gun every now and then. When he reaches the top floor, gasping for breath, he hears one last shot, closer than ever, and then nothing. He freezes, eyes scanning the floor for a trace of Niall or _someone_ , but he sees nothing and he's about to give up when his eyes land on a door on the other end of the hall. 

It's open and leads to another set of stairs and he can see light pouring through it. The roof. Without thinking, Louis runs down the hall, flinging himself through the door and up the stairs. When he comes through the door at the top, he hits it and it swings shut behind him as he blinks rapidly so his eyes can adjust to the sun.

When they do, he sighs in relief, seeing Niall at the other side of the roof. Niall's got his back to him, so he doesn't know Louis' there. Louis starts to walk toward him, say something, but he freezes, tensing up again when he sees a woman with him. 

She's about his height, long brown hair and a gun in her hand. Despite the tension in both their shoulders and the guns hanging limply at their sides, they seem familiar with each other. They're talking, but it's hard to hear them and it doesn't seem friendly. 

He slowly inches closer to them until he can hear them and he stops, eyes widening and eyebrows shooting up as he watches Niall wrap an arm around her waist, pull her to him and into a bruising kiss. She kisses him back, hand gripping the back of his neck. When he breaks the kiss, he brings the hand holding his gun up and says, “I'm way too good for you, but I had hoped it'd work out.” Her brow furrows and she starts to respond, but he cuts her off. “Sorry, love.”

Louis quirks an eyebrow in amusement as Niall pushes her away from him and lets her fall off the edge of the building.

Niall spins on his heel, face devoid of emotion, eyes only flicking to Louis for half a second, and stalks toward the door. As he passes, Louis says, “Didn't think you had that in you, Ireland.”

Wrenching the door open and passing through the doorway, Niall replies, voice tinny in the stairway, “Eh, she didn't fall far. There's an awning that would have caught her. Didn't have it in me to kill her. Wouldn't have been fair.”

Following after him, brow furrowed, Louis asks, “It wouldn't?”

Niall's shoulders raise and fall. “She had plenty of times to kill me and she didn't. Believe me, her chances to kill me would have been embarrassing for several reasons.”

So it was Masha, he'd suspected, but wasn't sure. Snorting, he says, “Understandable, mate. Understandable.”

Niall ignores him to say, “There's nothing here. We can go now.”

Louis agrees and follows Niall back down to the first floor. They wordlessly pack up the bag of weapons and tools Niall brought with them – Louis somehow winds up carrying it – and head to the car. Once there he tosses the bag into the back of the Escalade and shuts the door. When he climbs in the passenger seat, Niall is glaring at him.

"Why you got to throw the bag like that? You know there are at least five guns, two flares and one grenade in there. Plus knives and-."

"What's your point?" he asks, not knowing whether Niall is really upset about it or if it's left over from their actual problem with each other.

Frowning, Niall tells him, "You don't throw weapons, Louis. You know that. You could've just blown us up."

"We're fine, Niall. Calm down."

Niall narrows his eyes, stares him down, then shakes his head, mumbling under his breath. He turns back to around and starts the car. "Just be more careful."

He's obviously in a bad mood. If though, Louis' pissed at him he can understand why, doesn't blame him. Niall never actually said say, but Louis had gotten the impression that he had serious feelings for this girl. Feelings that don't go away as soon as you've been betrayed. Feelings that has had him acting like a dick ever since Liam told them Masha was working for the Russian government. Feelings that probably prevented him from killing her back there on the roof. 

Louis gets it. That's a hard thing to deal with. Maybe he'll have Harry talk to him about it. Not that their situations are the same, but they were both lied to by the person they had feelings for. It could do Niall some good to talk to Harry about it. Or not. Harry's situation worked out a hell of a lot better than Niall's is.

Either way, Niall's in a bad mood and Louis doesn't want to get on his bad side right now – more than he already is – so he's going to keep quiet and let Niall do his sulking, moody thing he's exceptionally good at.

**

**A day later**

When they got back yesterday, Louis had walked in expecting to see Claire hanging all over Harry like she had been, but surprisingly he'd found her with Zayn. They were sitting at the table and Zayn was teaching her how to properly draw. She was happy and content, but it hadn't been what Louis expected to find.

He asked Harry about it quietly. Harry had looked over at them and smiled, saying that Claire hadn't known anything else and while they were hanging out Zayn walked through with art supplies and that was that. Louis knows Zayn well enough to know that he felt bad about scaring Claire the other day and this was his way of making up with her. He wouldn't be surprised if Zayn made a special trip out to buy that stuff.

He's glad Zayn made up with her, but the downside to it was she didn't leave Zayn alone all day, which meant Louis couldn't talk to him about Niall _and_ that he had to deal with a stroppy Harry.

Today, though, Claire is back to staying with Harry and Louis can have his talk to Zayn. He thinks Zayn knows, anyway, he always knows.

Since there's not enough bedrooms for them all, Zayn had chosen to stay on the sofa for the night as sort of a look out. Once Liam and Niall had woken up, he'd moved into their shared room to sleep for a few hours and as much as Zayn loves sleep, Louis isn't surprised to see Zayn sitting up in bed when he carefully opens the door.

“Was expecting you sooner,” Zayn mumbles, not looking up from his phone. “Shut the door and come tell Uncle Zayn what's bothering you.”

Shutting the door behind him, his eyebrows raise. “Please don't ever say that to me again,” he says, crossing the room to take the spot next to him. “And I think you know very well what this is about.”

Zayn sighs, locking his phone and setting next to him. “Oh, I know very well this is about Niall, but I want to know what exactly about this is bothering you. You've been having issues with him since we saved his pale arse from that Russian prison.”

“He's lied to us,” he replies with a lot less conviction than he wanted. Frustrated, he runs a hand through his hair. “It's just-, he's doing things and not telling us about them. He's keeping things from us that's making things more dangerous for us and for him.”

“But that's not your problem,” Zayn comments. When Louis doesn't answer, staring down at his lap, Zayn continues. “We keep things from each other all the time, whether that makes things more dangerous or not. It's what we do. And yeah, I think you're pissed off that he lied and got Harry involved. I get why you would be, but I think this goes deeper than that.”

He falls silent after that, waiting for Louis' response and Louis knows he's right. It does go deeper than that, but what truly made it worse was what Niall said to him.

“He's used Harry against me,” he says quietly, fixating on picking at the skin on his finger. “And what he said the other day about Harry and me. I-. You know what he said.”

“I do,” Zayn nods.

“I just-. I don't understand how he can say that to me,” he admits. “I mean, I know I'm not the best person. I've done some horrible things and it took me a long time to accept that Harry loved me despite that, you know. And to hear Niall of all people say that was-.” He cuts himself off, shaking his head. “I don't even know. And it's not like he's a position to judge. He killed people just for money. I just can't believe he used that against me. I thought he was my friend.”

Zayn's quiet, contemplating what to say. “He is your friend,” he settles on eventually. “That's why he knew to say that to you. I think-.” He pauses, shifting on the bed. “I think he's under a lot of pressure right now and has been. I think he felt he had no other way to get us to agree to help. Lying is one of the only things we all know how to do well. And when you found out what was really happening you were threatening to leave and he needs us – he needs _you_. Niall, he's great at what he does, but he really looks up to you. He admires and respects you and I think in that moment he panicked because you were going to leave. And he doesn't exactly know where to draw the line at times, so he said something he knew would get to you.”

“It worked,” Louis scoffs.

“You're right, he's in no position to judge, but I don't think he was. I'd bet my life he didn't mean that.” Louis only hums in response. “I will say you have right to be pissed at him for getting Harry involved.”

“He had _Harry_ lying to me,” he clarifies.

Zayn nods. “Yes, like I said, be angry about that all you want, but also know that Harry went along with it. If you can forgive him you can forgive Niall.”

“We'll see.”

They go silent again, Zayn staring at the side of his face while he still picks at the loose skin on his finger. He knows Zayn wants to say more and at this point there's nothing more Louis can say. He either forgives Niall or he doesn't. He knows that and Zayn knows he knows that.

It's not really a question of whether of not he's going to forgive Niall because he will. He was always going to forgive Niall. They've all lied to each other in the past, gotten angry and not spoken for however long. They're friends who work together and he was always going to forgive Niall. The question is why this is bothering him as much as it is. He's not sure he even knows why, but he knows that's what Zayn is choosing to focus on.

“I said it earlier and I'm saying it again, you had a problem with Niall since Russia,” Zayn begins. “You didn't comment on it earlier, but I have a feeling this is something that needs talking about. So, I'm asking, what's going on?”

“I dunno,” he lets out in a sigh. “I-. He's being reckless, is what he's doing. He never tells any of us where he's at or what he's doing and yeah, I get it. He's got to keep things quiet, but if something goes wrong. I know he's an adult and perfectly capable of taking care of himself. I just worry.”

“You shouldn't,” Zayn interrupts.

Louis lets out a dry laugh. “Yeah, well, out of the four of us I'm the only one who knows what's it's like to be kept in a foreign prison for an extended amount of time. That nearly broke me, Zayn. Niall shouldn't ever go through that. Or you and Liam.”

Zayn opens his mouth, then shuts it quickly. Pursing his lips, he says, “You've never been one to tone down your recklessness. We've always told you to be more careful and you never once listened to us. Why is it so different for Niall? It's a bit hypocritical, mate.”

“I know,” he nods.

“What's changed?”

Louis bites the inside of his cheek. “I'm not just worrying about myself anymore,” he says, turning to face Zayn. “In the beginning it was just me, so I didn't have to worry about others. But then you lads came around and it took me a long time to realize that you all were actually my friends. And I think that slowed me down a bit, but then-.” Pausing, he takes a deep breath. “Harry. It's Harry, you know. I can't even begin to imagine how I'd react – how I'd be – without him. If something happened to him I wouldn't ever be the same. I'm not alone anymore. I have to consider that what I do affects him too.”

“Okay,” Zayn draws. “How does this apply to Niall?”

“We're his friends. He's like a brother to me and sometimes I don't think he stops to think about how we'd be if something happens to him.”

“Ah,” Zayn nods. “I see. You're upset with him because he's doing what you did years ago. Before Harry. Okay.” He pauses for a second, then adds, “Tell him. Find him now and tell him that. Tell him how you feel. You may not get through to him, but at least he'll know.”

Louis shrugs. “Easier said than done, mate.”

Zayn starts to reply, but the door opens. Liam comes strolling in, the door shutting behind him. He goes straight to his bag that he's got sitting on a creaky wooden chair in the middle of the room and starts ruffling through it. He pulls out a pair of socks and turns to the leave the room, but freezes, eyes widening when he sees them watching him.

“Oh,” he says, clearing his throat. “Thought Zayn was sleeping.”

“I was,” he nods. “What are you doing?”

Blinking, he looks down at the socks and back up. “Claire and I were going to do puppets.”

Louis has to bite back his smile. “I hope those are clean. Don't go giving that child your dirty socks to play with.”

“They're perfectly clean socks, Louis,” Liam says, brow furrowed like he honestly believes Louis thought he'd give a child dirty socks. “Of course, they're not dirty.”

Zayn snorts out a laugh. Liam's eyes scan the room then. “What are you two doing?”

“Talking.”

Liam cocks an eyebrow. “About Niall?”

Louis glances at Zayn from the corner of his eye before nodding. “Do you have something to add to the discussion, Liam?” Zayn asks.

Biting his lip and glancing to the door, Liam answers. “I mean, not really. I've just noticed he's been a bit, um. How do I say this? Odd, lately. He's been odd. Like, how Louis used to be odd. Sorry, mate.”

Louis tilts his head, shrugging. “Nothing I've not heard before.”

“Well, still. He's been working a lot and being super secretive. It's almost like he's trying to distract himself or summat. I dunno. It's like he doesn't give a damn what happens to himself.”

“Yeah,” Louis agrees.

“Has he said anything to you?” Zayn asks Liam.

“Nah,” he answers, shaking his head. “He doesn't talk about that sort of thing with me.”

“Louis' going to talk to him.”

“What?” Louis' head whips around. “Why me?”

Zayn gives him a look, raising his eyebrow. Louis glares at him back and the fall into a battle of pulling faces at each other. Eventually, he hears Liam say, “Yeah, okay. I'm going back to Claire now,” before slipping out.

**

It's an hour later when he finds Niall alone in the main room of the house.

“Hey,” he says quietly, slowly walking in to sit next to Niall on the sofa. 

Niall's eying him cautiously. “Hey.”

“Where's Chardin?”

“In his room. Said something about how stuffy this place is.”

“Ah.”

An awkward silence falls over them as Niall keeps his attention on the papers he's looking through. He glances up at Louis every now and then, but turns back to the papers when he sees that Louis' watching him. Louis fidgets because that's apparently a habit he's picked up from Harry. 

Louis does his best to not let it bother him, that they're in a place where silence is like this between them. He opens his mouth several times to say something, but quickly closes it because he can't think of how to start this, if Niall is even willing to speak to him right now.

He eventually settles on on asking, “Niall what's going on?”

Niall sets the papers aside, turning so he's got a leg under him as he faces Louis. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean,” he says, propping an arm on the back of the sofa. “You've been a bit devil-may-care lately.” Niall quirks an eyebrow at that. Louis ignores it. “Look, I didn't even know you were in Russia. I'm worried about you. You seem stressed.”

Niall's quiet for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I am stressed. I've been doing these things for Interpol and I've just got a lot riding on this, Louis. I needed your help and I needed a way to get you to do that.”

“Lying to your friends and putting their boyfriends in dangerous situations was that way?” he asks.

“I know,” Niall sighs, slumping into the sofa. “I thought it was the only way to get you to agree, lying. I just really needed your help.”

“You've used Harry against me and had him lying to me,” Louis points out. “That's not okay. You know how I feel about that.”

Niall sighs. “I know and I'm sorry about that. Truly. And for what I said, when I implied that-.”

Louis holds a hand up. “It's fine.”

“No it's not. I shouldn't have said that. I don't even know where it came from. I was panicking.”

“If you'd just been honest with me from the start-.”

“I _know_ ,” Niall says, cutting him off. “I know that now. But I have to do this. I don't even know what will happen if I don't and I don't want to know.”

Louis gets that. He understands everything Niall has said to, but there's still one thing he doesn't understand. “Let me ask you something.” When Niall nods, he asks, “Why are you doing it? Like why did you agree to help this guy out? Because believe me I have a very good memory when it comes to my death. You said he owed you a favor and you were cashing it in then. What's this about?”

Niall takes a deep breath, shifting around so he's facing Louis more. “I don't know really,” he admits, shaking his head. “I've just-. I been feeling really guilty for everything that I've done. For all those people I killed. I feel so bad about it. And it's not like these feelings are new. I've been struggling with it for years, can't sleep properly. Can't handle being alone. I figured I needed to try to distract myself, but the jobs weren't working because I was still doing something wrong, you know? So, I, uh, I called up Harvey.”

He pauses, running a hand down his face. “He's been giving me tips and what not. Things for me to do.”

“So, you're working for Interpol?”

He nods. “Sort of. It's kind of secret. The only person that knows is Harvey. He could get in trouble for it, but it helps him and it gives me something to do.”

“Okay, but this whole thing with Chardin seems pretty important,” Louis starts, “wouldn't they want to know exactly who is on the case?”

“Yeah, but Harvey deals with that I don't,” Niall supplies. “I know it's sort of dangerous what I'm doing, but I feel better.”

“It's a coping mechanism?” Niall nods. “Sounds to me like you're trying to make up for your past by doing this and that's great. I'm not saying it's a problem, but I think you need to be more careful. You're one of my best friends and you're like a brother to me. I need you to be okay. I need you to stop lying to me and I need you to stop dragging Harry into it.”

Niall flushes, ducking his head. “Louis, I'm so sorry about all this. I'm not trying to like piss you off or anything, but-. Damn it, I don't know.”

It's so weird, seeing Niall this unsure of himself and of what he's doing. Louis' not sure he's ever seen this side of Niall aside from the only time they ever talked about his past, but even then it was different to how he is now.

Now, he almost seems embarrassed with underlying guilt. It's a feeling Louis knows well, one they all know, but Niall, he's feeling it on a level Liam and Zayn will never understand. Louis can only vaguely understand it. Zayn's never had a second thought for what he does, doesn't care who it affects. He was like that when Louis meet him. The situation with Perrie made him worse, hardened him to the point that Louis wasn't even sure Zayn was feeling anything, but he realized soon enough that Zayn did feel, he just didn't feel for the people he was screwing over.

Liam's still a bit of a mystery to him, but he knows Liam has never done anything he regrets and the only thing Zayn regrets is not telling Perrie the truth. Louis regrets a lot of the decisions he's made in his life, but he's made peace with most of them and even if he hadn't it'd be hard for him to regret the major decisions he's made because they eventually lead him to Harry. 

What Niall regrets is something they've never done. They've never been paid to kill people. They've killed plenty of people, but they've all been criminal's themselves and most of the time it's been in defense. Louis will be the first to admit there are a couple of deaths he's responsible for that he wishes he could take back, but he never accepted money for them. 

The things that Niall is dealing with are things they can't help him with. He's got to deal with it on his own and that's a hard thing to do. It's hard feeling like you don't have people to talk to and even harder when you know no one will understand. Louis doesn't envy him at all.

“Well, you'll figure it out,” he tells him. “And just know that if you ever want to talk I'm only a phone call away.”

Niall gives him a small smile and they fall into a silence, more comfortable than before. From one of the bedrooms they hear a loud thump, Harry's “Ouch!”, and Claire giggling. He doesn't know what happened, but it still brings a smile to his face.

Niall clears his throat and when Louis looks at him, he's watching him carefully. “You know, considering everything, I'm surprised you still work,” he comments, looking back toward the bedroom when Claire lets out a sequel followed by more giggles. 

Turning in his seat, he fixes Niall with a pointed look. “You tried quitting,” he points out. “Tell me, how'd that work out for you?” 

“Yeah, okay.” Niall's silent for a second before asking, “Have you and Harry ever discussed kids?”

The question doesn't surprise him, but he's still at a loss for what to say. He's never mentioned anything about it to the lads. It was an unspoken agreement that the conversation would stay between him and Harry. 

“We have,” he answers honestly. “But it's too dangerous,” he adds. When Niall starts to question it, he explains. “I mean, I'm never going to be able to quit. I don't think so, anyway. I already worry about Harry entirely way too much. I can't imagine having to worry about him and a child. I couldn't handle it I don't think. We agreed it was for the best.”

“But how does Harry feel?”

Louis shrugs. “I mean, he wants kids. _I_ want kids, but we agreed it was better. I know it's something he thinks about quite often. I've told him that if it'd be better for him to find someone else that would do it with him.” Niall doesn't respond and when he looks over Niall's blinking at him, mouth popped open. “What?”

“You actually said that? Like you actually basically told him to choose you or someone else and children?”

“Uh, yeah.” He opens his mouth, shuts it, opens it again, shuts it again. “Why?”

Niall purses his lips, nostrils flaring. “That's a shit thing to do. No, I'm serious, Louis. That sounds a hell of a lot like an ultimatum.”

“No it wasn't,” he says, shaking it head. “It was most definitely _not_ that and he knows it. I just wanted him to know that as much as I love him I want him to be happy and if that means he's with someone else who is willing to give him children than so be it. I'm not taking the decision away from him. I would never do that. And believe me I'd love to have kids with him, but it's not realistic.”

Niall crosses his arms over his chest, looking very much like a petulant child. “That's stupid.”

“It's really not, Niall,” he says. “Harry understands. He knows where I stand on this and he's the one making the decision.”

“You're both amazing with kids, though. And I think you could make it work. _But_ it's your decision to make,” Niall tells him. Crossing his arms, he adds, “I still think it's stupid that you said that to him.”

“Thank you for your support, Niall,” he says, dryly. “Means a lot.”

“You love me.”

“Barely.”

The door to one of the bedrooms open and Zayn and Liam come out. Zayn goes straight to their kitchen area. Liam sits in the chair in the corner. 

“Niall, let me ask you something.”

“I'm popular today,” Niall replies, smiling wide.

“What did you really know about Masha?”

Niall's smile immediately drops as his features darken. “I'm just sayin',” Liam continues, “I feel like there's something you aren't telling us about it and that doesn't sit well with me.”

Zayn walks back in, beer in hand. “Oh leave him alone, Liam,” he says, sitting on the floor next to him. “If he wants to talk about it, he'll talk about it. Stop trying to trick him into opening up about his feelings. No one likes that.”

Louis rolls his eyes as they start bickering. They could be at it for hours, but Niall cuts them off. “I knew exactly who she was.”

They stop, both in the middle of sentences, fingers pointed at each other and turn to him. Louis leans back into the sofa. “We were completely honest with each other. Or at least, I thought we were,” he elaborates. “I knew she was spy. She told me as much and I told her who I was. I've never once done that before and I'm not even sure how that came about.”

Pausing, he lets out a loud breath, running a hand through his hair. “I never mentioned Chardin or Interpol or the real reason I was in Russia. I made something up, but I think she might've hacked my computer and seen the files Harvey sent me, which I assume is when she had me arrested. And now she's working for the Russian government to kill Chardin. I really know how to pick them.”

He finishes in a wry smile. Liam and Zayn are frowning at him, eyes full of pity. From the way Niall has been acting over this, from the way he speaks – almost regretfully – from what Louis saw on that roof yesterday, Niall had more than a little crush, more than just a sexual relationship with this woman.

Niall's had his fair share of relationships over the years, but they've mostly just been a sexual attraction. There have only been a handful of women that have been able to gain Niall's attention for more than just a quick fuck, but even those relationships don't mean much in the grand scheme. He's never asked Niall about it, though, always assumed there was a reason. No matter what that reason was Louis would have supported him. Falling in love is hard, difficult to manage for a lot of people, but falling in love when you're them is even harder. He'd assumed for a while Niall didn't let himself get attached for that reason. For whatever reason, Louis thinks Niall got attached this time.

The others wouldn't understand, not really. Because Zayn was in love with Perrie, but it only lasted for several months and their whole relationship was built on a lie. Liam has Sophia, but only sometimes. They have an on-again-off-again relationship that Louis doesn't understand. It used to really affect Liam when they were off, but he's learned to deal with it. And Louis doesn't know if they truly do love each other or if it's more convenient for them to think that way about each other because that would mean no one would get dragged into this nasty life and, in a fucked up way, it'd protect them.

Hell, it took Louis forever to find Harry and to actually have them and even now he's ridiculous about it in terms of trying to keep Harry safe and they can't have a “normal” relationship for a ton of different reasons – among them being the fact that Louis is supposedly dead.

The point is, none of them really know how Niall is feeling or what he had felt for her, but Louis is pretty damn sure he knows. “Niall, were you in love with her?” he asks, quietly.

Niall stays silent, staring directly in front of him. “It wouldn't matter if I did. Not now, anyway.”

“You were,” he says softly. 

“I don't really want to talk about it,” Niall says. “I don't really have anything to say other than yes, I was in love with her and I had hoped that things would work out, but they can't. They won't.”

“Okay,” he nods. 

Louis drops it, can tell Niall doesn't want to discuss it further and is thankful when Claire comes running into the room, Harry right behind her saying something about how she can't change her mind about who her favorite is. She leaps into Niall's lap, which immediately brings a smile to his face, dropping the somber mood that the room had.

Still, everything Niall has said today has him thinking – has him suspecting this is all why he didn't kill Masha. He was in love with her and he's trying to make up for his past. Had Louis been in Niall's shoes yesterday and it were years ago before Harry he definitely would have killed her and he'd been surprised when Niall hadn't. It makes sense now.

Niall was in love with her.

**

**Two days later**

They're checking out more of the places on the list. Yesterday they'd split up – two and two – to check out two of the smaller buildings. They'd come up with nothing and decided that since today they would be searching an abandoned factory of some sort they should all go to cover more ground quickly, leaving Harry with Chardin and Claire. That had been a bit of a hard decision for Louis, but Harry can take care of himself. He'll be fine.

The factory wasn't quite as big as they had thought, but it's still quite big and with no way to get blueprints and no electricity that they can find they're flying blind. Liam and Zayn had chosen to go at it alone, something about how being with someone distracts them, which Louis thinks is utterly ridiculous. He and Niall stayed together.

The place is dirty, debris everywhere and he doesn't have a clue where you'd hide diamonds in a place like this. Not to mention, it seems like the type of place you'd find a dead body or be ambushed. He's not comfortable being here, is quite jumpy.

“I don't like this place at all,” he comments as he and Niall head done a dark hallway, guns out and ready if they should need them.

“At least you didn't just walk right through a spiderweb,” Zayn's voice says in his ear. “So dark I can't see a fucking thing.”

Louis snorts, imagining it, imagining Zayn in the dark trying to get a spiderweb out of his hair. The faces he'd make alone is priceless.

“How come some rooms have light and others don't?” Niall questions. “I don't actually expect any of you to know that answer. I'm just curious is all.”

“Uh, lads,” Liam hisses in their ears. “I'm in a bit of trouble.” Louis and Niall freeze halfway down the hall, listening for the rest. “If someone could come help me as soon as possible, please. I'm still in the main work room.”

Niall and Louis share a look before turning and running back down the hall. "Hang on as long as you can, Liam. Niall and I are on our way." 

In their ear, Zayn says, "I'm not even close to where you are Liam. Just hold out long enough for Lou and Niall. I'll be there eventually." 

Louis wants to tease Zayn about still being caught in the web, but now isn't the best time for that. 

"I don't think it's fair that every single one of you have guns and I don't."

At first Louis' confused as to what Liam's talking about, but then it hits him. Liam is surrounded by who knows how many armed people. “Shit!” he yells, running faster down the hall. Somehow Niall is still ahead of him by a step.

"Well come on then,” he hears Liam say as they turn the last corner. 

He passes Niall, seeing the light glow of light from the main work room. They run in right as someone raises their gun and shoots Liam in the shoulder. A quick scan of the room shows that there's at least ten people with guns.

Niall yells out as Liam grips at his shoulder and drops down to his knees. He starts to run to him, but his yell has alerted the men of their presence and several turn and start firing shots off in their direction. Louis grabs Niall by the hand and pulls him behind a stack of wood crates. 

Crouching down, Louis turns to Niall. “That was stupid!”

Frowning, Niall retorts, “Like you weren't about to do that same.”

Louis ignores him, bullets hitting the whole area around them, some hitting the crates, wood splintering and flying everywhere. He peeks over around the edge, counts six guys firing at them and another five standing behind them. 

He pulls back, looks at Niall, says, “There's too many of them.” He gets his gun ready, adds, “Zayn you better hurry and get your arse down here.”

“Just about there,” Zayn's reply comes.

“Faster please.”

He peeks back around the crate and fires a couple of shots, hitting one guy in the knee. Niall's peeking around the other side of the box, firing his own gun. Louis manages to take another guy out by getting him in the abdomen, but all he can think about is why the hell Liam hadn't been armed or tried to fight back. He's a smart man, it's not adding up.

Just as he's thinking that, he hears Liam in his ear. “I found the diamonds,” he rushes out. “They've already taken them out, but I found them and I have a feeling they're about to take me. Either way the diamonds have a tracker in them and I have one on me as well. Don't fuck this up, lads.”

Louis' brow furrows, faltering in his shooting as he sees that Liam was right. Two men come up on either side of him, grabbing him under the arm and start dragging him off.

“I've made it,” Zayn says. “Give me a second and you'll have a distraction to get out.”

He and Niall pull back, backs to the crate as bullets continues flying. “They'll want to know where Chardin is,” Louis says, breathing heavy. He pushes away, around the crate and fires twice and falls back to the crate. “It's why they're taking Liam.”

Niall nods, asking, “How long you think he can hold out?” 

“No idea.” A bullet hits directly above his head, causing them duck down. “Where the hell is Zayn?” he demands, looking over the top of the crate.

Just as he does there's an explosion behind the guys shooting at them. The ones that didn't fall, spin around and start shooting. “Get out!” Zayn yells at them. “I'll be right behind you!”

Brow furrowing, he looks up to the second level that overlooks the work room and sees Zayn giving him a thumbs up. Louis' not sure how Zayn managed to cause an explosion, but he smiles, saying, “You crazy son of a bitch! I love you!”

“Yeah, yeah, now get out. I'll meet you at the car.”

He turns to Niall. “You ready?”

Niall nods and gives them a silent countdown. At one they leap up, firing at the men, arms up to the protect their faces from the ashes and splinters and back out of the room quickly. Once in the hall they drop their guns and run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [thoughtlessblogger](http://www.thoughtlessblogger.tumblr.com)


	4. But it's Harder than You Think Telling Dreams from One Another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They get Liam back, an unexpected 'friend' shows up, and Niall has another run-in with Masha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I want to stress that Interpol does not actually work the way it does in this story.
> 
> One more chapter to go. It'll be up on Friday.
> 
> Thanks and enjoy!!

**The same day**

After going great lengths to make sure they weren't being followed, Niall got them back to the safe house and Louis was delighted to find Harry reading Claire a book, wrapped up under a blanket on the sofa together, while Chardin sits in the corner, frowning as he stares out the window.

“Uh, Harry,” he says, setting down one of the bags of weapons Niall had taken with them. “We need to talk. You know, without little ears.”

Harry blinks up at him before eyes scanning the room. Louis sees the exact moment he notices Liam isn't there, how his eyes widen slightly, how he closes the book, handing it to Claire. “Can you take this into the other room and wait for me?”

She nods, hopping off the sofa. Harry follows here, hand on her shoulders as he leads her out of the room. Niall walks into his and Liam's shared room without a word. Zayn's standing in the corner, glaring at Chardin when Harry shuts the door to the room Claire is in.

When he turns around he steps toward Louis. “What happened?”

Niall comes out of the bedroom then, carrying one of Liam's laptops. He settles at the table, lifting the lid and immediately typing.

“Well, good news is, we found the diamonds,” Louis directs at Chardin. “Bad news is, we lost them. The even worse news is we lost Liam as well.”

Harry's brow furrows. “You lost him? Like how?”

Before he can answer, Niall does. Voice hard and eyes set on the laptop in front of him. “The bastard went and basically got himself kidnapped, along with the diamonds. But he was able to tell us he put a tracker with the diamonds and one on himself so we should be able to find him. Although, I don't think he took into consideration that none of us are quite as good with this as he is.”

Louis watches Niall as he goes back to silently typing away. He turns back to Harry and says, “Let's not forget he got himself shot as well, but _that's_ not really the point.”

“He's going to be okay, right?” Harry asks, following after Louis as he walks over to Chardin. “Like, he's not going to die?”

“If I can help it, he won't,” he grits out. Bending over so he's eye level with Chardin he adds, “And for your sake you better hope he doesn't because I swear I will end you.”

Chardin's eyes widen, but he doesn't say anything. Rolling his eyes, Louis straightens up and turns around. Harry's watching him with a pinched look. It's the look he gets when he's concerned about Louis' mental state. Louis wishes he didn't know this look so well, but he does. He gets this look directed at him every time he shows any stress or anything goes wrong and he's not quite sure why.

Because, yeah, he does tend to overreact at times, but he's gotten a better hold on that and it's not like he's about to grab a small arsenal and go off on his own to save Liam. Years ago? Yes. He would have done it without a second thought and maybe that's why Harry always looks at him like that when something goes wrong because there _had been_ a time when Louis would have risked his life without a second thought.

But Harry should know by now that he has changed, has taken more of a liking to staying alive, and isn't going to fly off the handle over something like this.

“Ah!” Niall exclaims. “It's doing something!” His cheerful demeanor deflates as he slumps back into the chair. “Damn. It's going to take some time to complete the tracking.”

“Well, it better be fast cause they've probably already started trying get information out of him.”

Louis frowns over at Zayn. “Yeah, I think we know that, thanks, but the technology can only go so fast.”

Zayn shrugs. “Can we kill him?” he asks, jerking his head in the direction of Chardin. “I mean, can we just do it now? Save the Russians some time and money.”

Before Louis can tell him no, they can't do that. Chardin jumps up. “I thought you were protecting me?”

“No. _He_ is,” Zayn answers, gesturing toward Niall. “I,” he adds, motioning at himself, “quite frankly, don't give a damn what happens to you. But I _can_ tell you, if something happens to my friend I will kill you and you can best bet that whatever I do will be a hell of a lot worse than what the Russians can even imagine doing.”

Pinching his nose, Louis sighs. “Zayn, come on, mate.” But he's drowned out by Chardin.

“Do you think I planned for all this to happen?” he asks. “Do you think I planned for the Russians wanting me dead? Or for a bunch of criminals to show up at my door, saying they're working with Interpol?”

“To be fair, only one of us is working with Interpol,” Louis mutters.

“I didn't plan for any of this,” Chardin continues, accent heavier than Louis' ever heard it. “I'd like to go home, sleep in my bed. Eat some actual fucking food. Not worry about people killing me.”

“Well, you should have thought about that before you _yourself_ committed crimes and pissed off the Russians!” Zayn yells.

“Okay, okay,” Harry rushes out, stepping between Zayn and Chardin. “Everyone needs to calm down. Take a deep breath and calm yourselves. It's not good for anyone to get that worked up. It's not good for your _hearts_.”

“ _Jesus Christ_ , Harry,” Zayn mumbles, rubbing at his temples as he turns away from Chardin, who falls back into the chair behind him.

Harry's wearing a proud smile when Louis meets his eyes. “Oh, thank god,” Niall mutters. “I've got a location for both the diamonds and Liam.” They all go over to stand around Niall as he tries to find out where the address is. “It's another abandoned factory,” he says, eventually. “How many are there in Paris?”

“Does that actually matter?”

Niall shrugs. “Okay, it looks like I can get partial blueprints for it, but that'll only get us so far.”

Louis straightens up from where he was leaning over Niall's shoulder. “All right, here's what's going to happen. The three of us will go get Liam and the diamonds. We can't plan for that because we don't know what we're dealing with, but we will get Liam back – alive. Harry,” he says, turning to him. “You'll stay here with Chardin and Claire.”

Harry nods. 

“We should go over these prints,” Niall says. “If I had a printer I'd print them out so we could study them on our way there, but you know.”

Louis pats him on the back. “We've got this, Niall. Don't worry.”

Niall hums noncommittal. Harry meets his eye over Niall's head as he excuses himself. “I'm going to go back to Claire.”

He watches after him as he leaves, doesn't take his eyes away until he's slipped into the room and closed the door behind him. “Okay,” he says, clapping his hands once and rubbing them together. “Let's get started.”

**

They've got about ten minutes before they need to leave. Normally, torture for information can be dragged out for whatever amount a time, but they're not taking their chances. Liam's a strong, smart man, but even he can't hold out forever and it's really down to how they do it that makes the decision. Louis doesn't even want to think about that, doesn't want to imagine what they're doing to his friend, doesn't want to imagine that he overestimated Liam and he hasn't been able to hold off this long.

It's stupid, what's going on in his head. He's tried thinking about, trying to figure out a time frame, but it was too much to think about. All he knows is there's a chance the Russians are on their way here right now and there's a chance they aren't and either way when they finish with Liam they will most likely kill him.

But they're leaving soon and he's got to speak to Harry, which he should probably do instead of standing the doorway watching him read read the book from earlier to Claire. It sounds like Harry Potter from the voices Harry's doing. She's giggling and making fun of him for some of them and he's smiling back and exaggerating the voices even more.

Louis lets out a laugh when Harry chokes himself with one particular voice. When he's recovered he looks over to Louis with a small smile.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Can we talk?”

Harry nods, starts to say something to Claire, but she lets out a loud sigh. “I know, I know. Claire gives us the room,” she says, sliding off the bed. “I'll be waiting for more,” she adds on her way out of the room.

They stare after her for a minute before Louis hears Harry getting off the bed and coming up behind her. “If something goes wrong,” Louis starts, back to Harry, “you need to do what you need to do. Don't worry about Chardin. Worry about yourself.”

“What about Claire?” Harry questions, quietly.

“Use your judgment for that,” he says honestly, turning to see Harry nod. “I'm serious Harry. Remember what I've told you, what I've taught you. There's a good chance they're on their way here and if that happens you need to get the hell out and I will meet up with you.”

“You may not,” Harry points out. “I know what you're saying here, Louis. I know what to do to and I know what you want me to do. Trust me when I say that I can handle myself.”

Louis sighs, lets Harry pull him into a hug, wraps his arms around Harry's waist and buries his face into his chest. “I know, but I've got to worry. I'm like programmed to worry about you.”

He feels Harry press a kiss to the top of his head. “I really don't think you are, but okay.”

He may have a point to that. Louis' is actually a natural worrier. He used to always hide it, though, wouldn't let anyone see that part of himself. He doesn't care enough to hide that now.

“And since I've promised you that I know what I'm doing, promise me you'll be okay?”

Louis rolls his eyes, pulls away from him so he can see his face. “I'll be fine. I won't die and I won't get hurt. Promise.”

“You wouldn't tell me even if you did get hurt,” Harry replies, lips pursed.

“That's true.”

"I know how many scars you have and I know exactly where they are. I'm not above checking. I will know."

He means it too. In all the time they've spent together they've had countless times to explore each other's bodies in more ways than one. There had been a night years ago when Louis hadn't been able to sleep and Harry had stayed up with him. Harry had asked about his scars. He'd said he'd seen them, knew the stories behind some of the newer ones, but he wanted to know about the rest.

Maybe it was because of a lack of sleep because revisiting his old injuries wasn't something he liked to do, but Louis told him. He let Harry strip him and point out each scar on his body and when he'd finished the story of each one Harry would kiss the spot and move on to the next one. Louis hadn't thought any of the stories were particularly interesting, but Harry listened to each one intently. He'd tried to keep his explanations concise, but Harry knew what he was doing and forced more details out of him.

_He'd been shot, nothing too serious when Harry pointed to the scar on his left shoulder._

_"Stabbed, sounds worse than it was," he'd said about the scar on his lower back._

_The scar on his thigh - well, Harry knew that one and it's more personal to the both of them, but he'd asked anyway. It was from the knife Rodman stuck in him._

_The slashes across his abdomen were from that same night, some from Rodman, some from one of his henchmen._

Harry spent longer on those scars, both of them remembering that night. It was the first time either of them had acknowledged it in a long time and Harry had kissed him softly for a long time until Louis had finally been able to fall asleep.

Ever since then Harry has known exactly where his scars are and how many he has. Louis always tries to lie about being hurt, but Harry always figures it out.

“Not every injury leaves a scar,” he points out. “I could still not tell you.”

Harry frowns down at him. “You whine too much when you're not feeling well. I'm sure I'll know.”

“That's horribly untrue.”

“It's really not, love.”

Louis rolls his eyes, pushing up to press their mouths together. It's soft and packed full of emotion and promises. Harry's promise to take care of himself and Louis' promise that he'll come back. They kiss like that until they hear someone clear their throat behind them.

“Uh, lads,” Niall says. “Louis, we gotta go.”

They break the kiss, each with a kiss, Harry pecking him once before dropping his arms and taking a step back. “Go on,” he says. “I've got more of a book to read.”

“Don't hurt yourself.”

“Wouldn't dream of it,” Harry replies, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Now go. Get Liam.”

Louis turns, makes it to the doorway before he turns back. “I love you.”

Harry nods, face serious. “I know. Now _go_.”

He stares at Harry, ignores how he bites his lip and drops his head down. “I'll be back,” he says eventually when he hears Niall yell for him from the other room.

It's not until he gets into the hall when he hears Harry reply, “I love you.”

**

“Let's go left,” Niall says leading them down the left hallway without waiting for their answers.

Zayn and Louis share a look before following after him.

They'd managed to get in the building without a problem, without running into anyone, which is the reason Louis is so uneasy about this. It's been about three hours since they took Liam. That's more than enough time to get information out of a person. Louis hopes Liam's been able to hold out this long, is sure has, but they're running out of time to find him.

Niall's patience is running thin. Louis suspects it's because he feels guilty, but snapping at him and Zayn every time they say or do anything is not helping. If anything it's making things worse. He's just glad that now that they're in the building Niall's got to be quiet.

The blueprints Niall managed to find weren't complete and unfortunately didn't cover the front of the building. They don't have a clue where they're going, how many people they're dealing with or where Liam is and the fact that Niall still wants to find the diamonds is something Louis can't wrap his mind around.

They're rounding the corner into a large open room when, at the last moment, Louis sees several guards with guns. He doesn't have time to say or do anything and Niall walks right into the room. The guards notice him immediately and start shooting at him. Fortunately, Niall is quick and is able to dive behind a stack of boxes.

Zayn and Louis follow after him. 

“We should've gone right back there,” Zayn yells at them.

“Yeah, well excuse me for not picking the right direction!” Niall yells, flinching when a bullet flies over his head and hits the wall.

“Oh, I'll show you the right direction you-.”

“Lads!” Louis yells gaining their attention. “Can we get back to this?”

Zayn groans, cocks his gun and stands, firing a couple bullets before dropping back down. “There's no way to get around them. We should've gone right. Always go right.”

“I've got an idea,” he says. 

Niall raises his eyebrows. “Well, what is it?”

“You two stay here and distract these guys and I'll go find Liam.”

“I don't fucking think so!” Zayn grits out. “That's a shit idea.”

“Liam saved my life countless times before. I will save his,” Louis argues. “At least two of us need to be here and someone has to get Liam. You two are better shots than I am. This makes sense.”

Truthfully, he and Zayn are the same, but Zayn doesn't argue. Only lets out an exasperated breath and stands firing his gun once before running over to another stack of boxes.

“Be careful, Louis,” Niall tells him before leaning around the boxes to shoot.

Louis crouching over to avoid the gunfire, runs out of the room and back into the deserted hallway. He keeps running, never coming across another person. He's not sure if that's a good sign or not, but he keeps going. He runs until he gets to the hallway Zayn had wanted to go down.

He slows himself, gun ready and makes his way down this hall. It's darker than the other, doors to smaller rooms that all seem to be vacant. They're offices, he's sure. He's got a feeling he's getting closer to Liam because these are the sort of rooms he'd torture someone for information in. 

As he gets further down the hall, he notices it's goes to the left and there's more light. It's glowing yellow and he knows without a doubt Liam is somewhere around that corner.

The closer he gets to the turn, the closer to the wall he gets. When he's nearing the end, he's flush against the wall, gun cocked. He slowly inches his head around the corner and sees two guards standing outside the only door. He pulls back, takes a deep breath and hopes there's not many more guards hiding in that room.

Jumping around the corner, he fires off to shots, hitting the guard closest to him in the chest. He goes down hard and quick, but the second guard is already firing at him. To avoid the bullet, he dives back around the corner, hitting the floor with a thud.

Quickly, he scrambles back so he's against the wall, knees bent. The guard is still shooting at him and it's going to be damn near impossible for him for him to get a shot off without risking getting shot himself. He's got to try, though.

He pushes himself up, takes another deep breath and jumps back out. He fires once, getting the guard in shoulder. The guard keeps shooting, but his aim is off, so Louis gets another two shots aimed at his chest. The guard drops the gun, clutching at his chest as he falls to the floor.

Louis waits, breathing heavily, to see if someone will come out of the room. It never happens and when he's waited long enough, he starts making his way to the door, stepping over the guards' bodies and blood. When he has a hand on the doorknob he half expects it to be locked, sighing in relief when it's not.

He takes a moment to pull himself together before turning the know and pushing the door open so it flings open, hitting the wall. He's got his gun raised and pointed when he steps through the doorway, blinking in the dark of the room. No one's shooting at him, so he feels around on the wall beside him for a light switch. He finds one, switching it on and the room lights up, his jaw clenching at the sight.

There's a chair in the center of the room and Liam is there, tied and gagged. He's unconscious, head bent and blood running down the side of it. There's blood seeping through his shirt from where he was shot and his arms are covered in what look like burns. There's a burn mark on his chest too, going through his clothes.

No one else in the room, which is definitely not a good sign, but he puts his gun in his waistband and closes the distance between him and Liam.

“Liam,” he whispers, carefully grabbing at his face. It's bruised up completely on the left side. “Liam, mate, wake up.”

Slowly, Liam comes to, eyes fluttering open. “Everything hurts,” he manages to say.

“Yeah, mate, I'm sure it does, but I need you to stay awake while I untie you. Think you can do that?”

Liam nods, wincing at the pain. Louis sets to untying him, making sure to be careful when he sees the rope marks around Liam's wrists. “Liam, you still with me?”

“Yeah, Lou.”

“Good.”

Louis frees his wrists and starts on the rope that's got his torso tied to the chair. 

“They had fucking branding irons,” Liam tells him.

Louis can, of course, see that, and there's a lot of marks up and down his arms and one of the back of his neck. They look painful and he's going to have scars. Still, he says, “It's not bad, mate. You'll make a quick recovery.”

Liam makes a sound like he's tried to snort, but it turns into a groan. “Think I've got a broken rib or three.”

“It's more likely you're just bruised,” Louis says, finishing untying the rope and standing up. “But we'll take care of you either way.” 

“Where are Zayn and Niall?”

“Come on,” he says, crouching down beside Liam and pulling his arm over his shoulder. “We've got to get you out of here,” he adds as Liam lets him pull him up. “And they're the distraction.”

As Louis is leading him out of the room, both their eyes fall to the table pushed against the wall. “I fucking hate these people,” Liam groans.

“At least they didn't know about that weird fear you used to have of spoons,” Louis retorts, carefully maneuvering Liam out into the hall, avoiding the guards' bodies.

“It wasn't weird,” Liam defends. “You just didn't understand.”

Louis hums, doesn't bother defending that because he's realized he and Niall and Zayn never talked about what to do once he found Liam. When he comes to the end of the hall with the option of going to where he left Niall and Zayn or to the exit, he pauses, glancing between both halls.

“You didn't think this through, did you?” Liam asks, tone dry.

“Uh,” he draws out. “Not really. It was make a decision or die, you know. Figured I had to stay alive to save your arse.”

“Liam!”

If Louis wasn't as acquainted with Niall's voice as he is, he definitely would have shot him just then. “Niall, don't do that,” he chastises as Niall comes to a stop in front of them.

Niall has the decency to flush. “Sorry, sorry. I'm just happy to see you, mate,” he directs to Liam.

Zayn comes up behind Niall. “Yes, yes. This is all very moving. He's alive, but we need to get out of here.”

“I couldn't agree more,” Louis says, leading Liam toward the exit.

“Wait, wait,” Liam says, as he pulls away from Louis. “I have to tell you. They know where Chardin is. I couldn't-. I'm sorry, but I couldn't.”

Louis squeezes his eyes shut. That's not good at all, but he'd almost expected that. There was hardly anyone here, meaning they left before they got here, meaning that they're probably halfway to the safe house, which means they're going to find Harry and Claire.

He opens his eyes, meeting Zayn's. He's looking at Louis with something he can't quite make out. “You told them?” Niall asks.

Liam nods. “I'm assuming Harry is still there?” When Niall nods, Liam drops his head. “Lou, I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry.”

“Don't be,” he says, holding a hand up. “It's not your fault. We expected this, didn't we? Now we just have to go back like we had planned anyway. Niall, did you two manage to find the diamonds?”

Niall's brow is furrowed when he nods. “In my bag. Are you-.”

“Louis, are you okay?” Zayn asks him.

“Yeah, why wouldn't I be?” He's met with three worried looks and he gets it. "Okay, look, Harry's proved to me quite a few times that he can take care of himself. I'm worried, but there's nothing I can do about it. And we need to come up with how we're going to go about this on the way there. Need to be level headed." 

"What?” Zayn asks. “You don't want to go in guns blazing and praying it ends up okay?" 

"No." 

"Who the hell are you and what have you done to Louis Tomlinson?" 

Louis sighs. “Can we just go?” he asks, motioning toward the exit. “The longer we stand here waiting the longer-.”

“Niall, you think you can patch me up a bit in the car?” Liam asks, cutting him off.

Niall nods. “Brought some stuff 'cause I figured I'd have to.”

The two of them start toward the exit, discussing Liam's worst injuries. Zayn's just behind, mumbling something under his breath that Louis doesn't care enough about to try to hear. He's trying very hard to not think about what's happening back at the house.

On the way out of the building, Zayn stops just inside the door and grabs Louis by the elbow. “I _hate_ Paris,” he hisses.

“So do I,” Louis says back. “Come on,” he says when Zayn drops his arm. 

“I'm just saying every time I'm here something bad happens,” Zayn continues, following after him. “First Perrie, then it was when I nearly got arrested. I wasn't even doing anything illegal then. I was just taking a stroll. _Then_ , I was here for-.”

Zayn cuts off, freezing. “Who the hell is that?”

“That's a great question,” Louis replies, eying the man that Niall and Liam are speaking to. 

They're standing at the boot of Niall's car, another car almost identical to it parked next to them. The man is wearing a brown trench-coat and dark sunglasses even though it's only night. The conversation between the man and Niall seems friendly enough, but Liam is frowning at the man from where he leans against the car.

“Doesn't seem like a dangerous situation,” Zayn comments, slowly starting to walk toward them.

“Yeah,” Louis agrees, following after him. The closer they get the more the man looks familiar to Louis, but he can't place him. When they've come up on them, Louis says, “Niall, who's our friend?”

Niall glances over at him. “Agent Scott Harvey of Interpol.”

“Oh dear fucking god,” Zayn mutters.

Agent Harvey turns to Zayn, frowning. “Believe me, Mr. Malik, I don't want to be here anymore than you do, but it seems you all have gotten yourselves into a bit of a pickle and I'm here to help.”

“Wouldn't need your help if you'd been able to do your job from the beginning.”

“I don't think it was my job,” Agent Harvey says. “Pretty sure your beef is with the French government.”

Louis can tell Zayn's biting back his response, which is probably more of an argument. “Now, Horan here tells me the Russians are on their way to the safe house where Henri Chardin, a six year old girl named Claire, and Mr. Styles are at.”

At Harry's name, Louis feels himself pale. They're wasting time, standing here chatting. They need to be leaving now. “Listen, Agent whatever your name is,” he starts, “if your here to help please do that, but can we stop standing around doing nothing?”

Harvey turns to him, acknowledging him for the first time. He pulls his sunglasses off, folding them and putting them inside his coat. “Mr. Tomlinson, I am here to help, but-.”

“Wait, I know you,” Louis says, cutting him off. “I thought I recognized you and I do. You're the guy from the park three years ago that warned me about trusting people.”

It doesn't make sense, but he definitely remembers that man. He'd spent a long time trying to figure out who he was, but he'd never been able to come up with anything. This is definitely the man from then.

“Indeed I am,” Harvey confirms. “We don't have time for that now, though. Thought you wanted to go save your boyfriend?”

Louis purses his lips because this is definitely something he wants to discuss more, but Harvey is right. They need to leave and they need to save Harry, Claire, and even Chardin.

“How many points of entry are there to the house?” 

“Two,” Liam answers. “One in the front and one in the back. It comes in at the kitchen.”

Harvey licks his lips. “Okay. Here's what's going to happen. We're going to have to park away from the house, walk up to it, so they don't hear us. Then the three of you are going to go in through the front and Tomlinson and I will go in through the back. I don't care how many of them you have to kill as long as Chardin and the civilians are alive.”

**

Louis isn't sure that trusting someone they just met is a good idea, but Niall has vouched for Harvey as much as he can. Niall may trust him to an extent, but Louis doesn't trust him at all. Somehow Harvey had known that Melvin Howard wasn't to be trusted, but Louis had known that anyway. What's bothering Louis about that is Harvey warned him about it without giving any reason, hadn't said who he was, and even when he'd agreed to help fake Louis' death, he'd not told Niall a thing. Something isn't adding up, but Louis can't do much about that at the moment.

They parked the cars far enough away from the house that they won't be seen, but close enough that they can see the house, see the guards at the front door. Niall managed to patch Liam up as much as he could on the way here and is now finishing up distributing weapons.

“You sure you're up for this?” Niall asks Liam as he takes a knife from him.

Liam nods. “Of course. I'll be fine, trust me.”

“You think Harry managed to get out?”

Louis turns to Zayn, stopping in loading the gun in his head. “No, mostly because, while he's a very smart man, he's quite stupid. I'm sure he could've gotten away, but he wouldn't leave Claire behind and he'd struggle leaving Chardin.”

“He's okay, though,” Zayn tells him.

“There's a third guard at the front,” Harvey says, lowering the binoculars he'd pulled from his car. “He's sitting so we can't see him from here,” he adds, turning toward them. “Unfortunately, we'll have to play by ear. I can't see anything at the back.”

Louis rolls his eyes so only Zayn can see. He quickly finishes loading the gun, places it in his waistband and steps toward Harvey. “Just so you know, I don't work well with others.” 

Harvey raises an eyebrow. “Neither do I,” he says. “But I think for this thing we can.”

“I agree. I just don't trust you.”

“Well, I don't trust any of you.”

“So, we're on the same page.”

“It seems we are, Tomlinson.”

“Oh dear god,” Zayn says. “Will the two of you stop with your pissing contest? We're ready.”

Niall shuts the door of his car and walks over, putting his double shoulder holster on. “No time like the present,” he says.

“Glad to see the holster make a return,” Louis comments, nodding to it.

Smiling, Niall replies, “Could never leave it.”

They start walking toward the house, Zayn, Niall and Liam in the front. They're silent as they go and when they come to the point where they're supposed to split up, Harvey stops, grabbing Niall's elbow. “Wait, Horan, what the hell are those?” he asks, pointing down at Niall's shoes. 

Niall looks down at his boots and back up, brow furrowed. “What? These? They're boots.” 

Louis' positive Niall's borrowed them from Harry, something they do a lot more often than they're willing to admit. 

“Right,” Harvey draws out, looking wary of them.

“Come on,” Louis says, tapping him on the shoulder and heading toward the back of the house. “Good luck, lads.”

As they're walking, Louis makes the decision to try to get information out of Harvey because he's confused and a bit scared of what he's going to find when they walk through that door. “How'd you know where to find us?”

“Horan tipped me off.”

“And you got here that fast?”

“I was in Lyon. It's where our headquarters are.”

“Was it really necessary to get the diamonds back?”

Harvey slows down as they reach the side of the house, back to it. “Of course, it's part of the evidence against Chardin,” he replies, quietly as they make their way to the back.

Louis stays quiet as Harvey leans around the corner of the house. When he's finished looking he turns to Louis fully. “There's only one guard back here. Any ideas?”

It takes Louis a moment to fully accept the fact that Harvey, an agent for Interpol, is asking his opinion on how to proceed, but when he does, he says, “Go down a ways and walk up from in front of him, unarmed, and distract him.”

Harvey nods before sneaking away. Louis takes the place Harvey had at the edge of the house. He stays quiet, listening for Harvey or the guard. He's some rustling around in the bushes and then Harvey's voice.

“Wait, don't shoot! Please!” Louis barely leans around the corner, seeing Harvey with his hands up. His made his hair messy and lost his coat, tie undone. “I-. Can you help me? I-. My car broke down back there and I have no cell signal and I don't know where I'm at.”

Louis glances at the guard. He's standing at the edge of the porch, gun pointed at Harvey. “You should turn around right now and leave,” the guard says, accent heavy. 

“Yes, I know,” Harvey replies. “But I don't know where I'm going and I have to call my wife and I don't-.”

Harvey starts rambling then, playing the part convincingly, but Louis tunes him out. He grabs the cloth with chloroform on it that Niall forced him to take with his right hand and slowly, quietly starts making his way to the side of the porch. The guard is too busy trying to calm Harvey down and doesn't notice him climbing over the edge of the railing on the porch.

He starts to slowly walk up behind the guard, gun in his left hand and cloth in the other. He sees the exact moment when Harvey realizes what he's doing and he takes a step toward the house. The guard growls at him to get back and that's when Louis pounces. 

Jumping up and over a bit, he's able to get the guard in a headlock, placing the cloth over his nose and mouth. The guard struggles, elbowing him in the stomach, but Louis only applies more pressure. Harvey runs up the couple of steps to the porch and grabs the guard's gun so he doesn't drop it and then runs behind them.

A couple seconds of struggling later and the guard is passed out. Louis carefully lowers him to the ground, tossing, sticking the cloth in his mouth so if he wakes up he can't speak. 

“Here,” he hears Harvey say from behind. “Use these.”

Louis sticks his hand out behind, fingers closing around cool metal. It's handcuffs. “How many more of these do you have?” he asks as he puts them on the guard.

“That's the only pair.”

“Okay, that's dealt with,” he says, standing up and rubbing his hands on his thighs. 

When he turns, Harvey is flush against the door peeking through the tiny window on it. “I don't see anyone in the kitchen and I haven't heard anything yet.”

There's a sound of a gunshot and Harvey turns to him, the sides of his mouth turned down. “Well, I hadn't heard anything.”

Louis grabs his gun off the floor of the porch and takes the other side of the door. “You want to follow me through? I know the layout. You don't.”

Harvey nods, so Louis puts his hand on the doorknob. As he goes to turn it, Harvey's hand grabs his wrist. When Louis cocks an eyebrow at him, he shakes his head. “Someone walked in,” he whispers. Louis freezes then, waiting for Harvey to give him the go ahead. “Good job with the guard, by the way.”

“You too,” Louis whispers. “Great bit of acting there. I almost believed you.”

Harvey rolls his eyes. There's another gunshot and Harvey nods his head. Louis hesitantly turns the knob, opening the door quietly. When it's open, he goes through, gun pointed. He can't see into the other room, but he can hear talking, hear Claire crying. 

He quickly walks over to the wall, careful to avoid being seen. When he gets there, he crouches down and waves Harvey over. Harvey comes in, quietly shutting the door behind and takes a place behind Louis.

Louis can see into the room now. Aside from the seven Russians, the first person he sees is Chardin. He's curled into himself on the floor, shaking and staring up with wide eyes. The next person he sees is Harry. He's standing in front of Chardin and Claire is wrapped around his leg, crying. He's got a hand protectively wrapped around her, his free hand holding a gun that's pointed at Masha Boykov.

He has to silence the sigh that threatens to spill out between his lips. He'd told Harry to leave and if they make it out of this alive, he's going to kill Harry himself.

“Who the hell is that?” Harvey inquires, voice low enough Louis almost misses it.

Louis turns, quirking an eyebrow. “You don't know?” 

“Of course I know who _he_ is,” he replies. “I was asking about the woman.”

“Oh, that's Masha Boykov. She's a spy or summat they assigned to the case.” 

“You know her?”

“Of her, more like.”

“Speaking of your man,” Harvey begins, “can he actually use that gun?”

“You'd be surprised,” Louis tells him.

Inside the main room, Masha is telling Harry to drop the gun and Louis sends out a silent prayer that Harry listens. Of course, he doesn't. He doesn't even show any sign of having heard her as he's staring over to the window. Secretly and he'll never admit it, Louis is impressed Harry was able to get a gun on Masha, who is obviously the leader here. He will ask Harry how that happened at some point. 

“Where the hell are your friends?” Harvey hisses into his ear.

Louis follows Harry's eye line to the window and sees Niall's brunette head on the other side. Louis' not entirely sure how, but Niall and Harry are able to silently communicate – though, Niall is able to silently communicate with most – and it seems that's what their doing now. Harry gives an imperceptible nod and Niall disappears from sight.

“Just wait,” Louis replies.

“Do he and Horan share shoes or summat?” 

The answer to that is yes, they do, but Louis' doesn't reply because Masha starts moving. She only moves a couple steps to her right, but it drags Harry's attention closer to him and Louis needs to give him a sign. 

As he's trying to think of one, he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulls it out and reads the text.

**two minutes you there?**

Louis quickly replies that yes he is there, shows Harvey then pockets his phone. 

“I hope Fancy Boots has good aim.” 

“Which one you talking about?” Louis asks.

“Either.”

Louis starts to reply that they both have very good aim – Harry's having improved over the years mostly because Louis forced him into so he could better defend himself, but also because Harry doesn't settle for not being as good as he can be – but before he can Harry's eyes find him.

Harry doesn't show any outward signs of it, but he sees him. Louis nods, jerks his head toward to the left hoping Harry understands to go toward the bedrooms. Harry blinks at him and Louis takes that as confirmation that he understands. 

Masha starts speaking again and Louis ducks back behind the wall. “Any second now,” he says to Harvey.

In answer, Harvey holds up his gun and smiles. Louis chooses to ignore him, turning back to the room. 

“It'd be easier for you to drop the gun,” Masha says.

“I really don't think so,” Harry replies.

Masha smiles wide and mocking. “Do you really think you can fight us all?”

Harry clenches his jaw. “I can always try.”

No you can't, Louis says in his head. You try and _I_ will kill you.

“A bit cocky, are you not?”

“Oh, I'm more than _a bit_ cocky,” Harry retorts and for a brief second Louis thinks he sees Masha's smile turn real before she's back to glaring.

“Hand over the gun and we will kill you quickly.”

“You're not going to be killing me at all,” Harry says. Louis' impressed with Harry's ability to sound like he's got everything in control, including his emotions, but Louis knows it's just a front. Harry's terrified. He can see it in his eyes and the way his hand is tightening around Claire. “You're not even going to get a shot at me.”

You're an idiot, Louis thinks. Of course, they'll get a shot at you.

Masha only has time to smirk before Harry's changing his aim for the window. He lets off three shots, the glass shattering everywhere. Some of the guards duck out of the way and Niall immediately jumps through the window, taking out the two closest guards to him with shots between their eyes. 

The door flies opens, providing further distraction from Harry as he grabs Claire and runs out of the room, slamming one of the bedroom doors behind him. Liam and Zayn come through the door, firing their own guns. 

“Damn that was cool to watch,” Harvey comments as he pushes himself up. “I take back every insult I thought about Styles,” he adds as he jumps into the doorway, taking out a guard almost immediately.

Louis' brow furrows as he mouths “what”. He stands up next to Harvey. “What do you mean insults?” he asks, hitting a guard in the knee.

“That he was stupid for getting involved, but he's actually quite smart,” Harvey yells at him. 

A guard gets close enough to him that he's able to land a punch in his jaw. The guard is stunned long enough for Louis to knock him out with his gun, which is when he sees Niall and Masha, staring at each other, jaws clenched and guns hanging limply at their sides.

Everything seems to come to a stand still as they circle each other. The gunshots stop as most of the guards have been taken care of. Off in the corner of the room, Liam's got guard down on his knees. “That's enough of you,” he says, hitting the man on top of his head. Liam's already turning away when the man falls to the ground.

Zayn's got an unarmed guard at gunpoint, watching as Niall and Masha wordlessly continue circling each other. Harvey is paying no attention to them, though. He's walking over to Chardin, who hasn't moved at all since they got here. Harvey, the liar that he is, pulls out another pair of handcuffs. Louis stops watching him when he hears Niall speak.

“You're outnumbered now and I don't want to kill you.”

“Like you've really got a problem with that,” Masha replies and for a second Louis thinks she's referencing Niall's past, but then he sees the way Niall's eyes flash with hurt and he realizes she's talking about something else entirely. 

“You'd be surprised,” Niall says, breathing heavily. “Besides, you kill me, they'll kill you.”

“I'll take my chances.”

In this moment Louis knows that neither of them want to do it. Neither of them want to kill the other, otherwise they would have done it by now. Hell, they would have done it on that roof. But he also knows that this won't end well for Niall either way and even if she did betray him he was in love with her and he shouldn't have to deal with having killed her. No one should have to do that.

But someone has to be hurt here, physically and mentally. There's no clear cut way for this to end. Niall's right. Once Masha gets a shot off at him, regardless of the fact that they don't want to kill her, they'll all aim for her and she won't make it out alive. But there's no way Niall is going to kill her. Louis doesn't even think Niall can shoot her at all. Something has to happen.

It's as Masha is stepping in front of him, not paying attention to him at all, that he gets the idea. Taking two steps forward, he wraps his arms around her, gun pointed at her head. 

“Drop the gun or I shoot you right now,” he says. Masha doesn't do anything and Niall's watching with wide eyes. Technically, if she wanted to, she could still shoot Niall. The fact that she hasn't yet, is a bit telling, but Louis can't afford to take another risk. Not when it comes to Niall's life. “Now!”

She tosses the gun to the side. Niall visibly relaxes. “Good,” Louis says. “Now you can live. Hopefully in a prison.”

Masha is smart and doesn't reply. 

“Louis,” Zayn says, tying up the guard he has at gunpoint. “That was a bit risky.”

“I know.” Harvey comes over then with yet another pair of handcuffs. “Thought you only had one? Where are you keeping them?”

Harvey smiles at him as he hands Masha over. “I'm not sharing my secrets.”

“Fair enough,” Louis says, holding his hands up an backing away. He turns to Niall, asking, “How you doin', Ireland?”

Niall purses his lips. “You just gambled with my life then.”

Nodding, Louis points out, “You lied to me and had Harry lying. We're even. But seriously, how are you doing?”

Niall clears his throat. “I'll be okay.”

“I'm going to find Harry and Claire,” he says to the room, putting his gun in his waistband.

“Better hurry and get them and get out,” Harvey says. “My people will be here soon and you all need to not be here.”

Louis nods, leaving the room. 

Harry and Claire are not in the first two rooms he checks, which has him wondering how Harry manged to get them this far. When he gets to the third bedroom he starts having visions of opening the door to someone with a gun to Harry's head or worse. 

Taking a deep breath, he turns the knob, pushing the door open. When it's open all the way, he lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Harry's on the floor, Claire in his lap with her face buried in his neck. He's staring up at Louis, mouth set in a hard line.

“Thanks for getting here so quickly. I was running out of ways to hold them off,” he comments dryly.

Louis lets out a laugh. “Sorry, love, but you did an amazing job. I'm barely even mad you didn't follow the rules,” he tells him.

“I hate you,” Harry says with a smile.

Louis smiles back and says, “I love you” because he really, truly does.


	5. Oh to See What it Means to be Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They make a decision about Claire and Louis gets a job offer of sorts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, okay, so this is done. The ending of this is a bit weird, but there's a good reason for that, so you know.
> 
> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter!!

**Two days later**

It's fucking windy on the tarmac. It's about the only thing Louis can focus on right now because it's making him colder than he should be and Harry isn't here for him to cuddle up to, so he's been leaning against the car, ignoring Zayn, Liam and Niall arguing about what the best French food is while they wait for Harvey to show up.

He'd called Niall yesterday and told them to meet him here so they could discuss what's happening with Chardin and the diamonds before he flew back to England. Louis almost suspects a trap, still doesn't trust Harvey, but Niall had been insistent that they make an appearance. He'd not be so grouchy about it if they hadn't been waiting for almost half an hour.

“Niall, how much longer are we going to wait?”

Niall starts to respond, but closes his mouth, smiling when a black car pulls up. Louis pulls his aviators down his nose to watch over the rim as the car pulls to a stop and Harvey steps out of it, pulling his coat closed as he shuts the door and makes his way toward them.

“Lads,” he says with a nod of his head. 

“Agent,” Louis replies, pushing the aviators back up.

“Sick car,” Liam says.

Pushing away from the car, Louis says, “Don't pay attention to Liam, Harvey. He's high on pain killers.”

Liam pouts as Harvey chuckles. “It is a sick car, though,” he says. “But that's not why were here.”

“Can we get on with it then?” Zayn questions, wrapping his arms around himself. “It's fucking freezing.”

“Henri Chardin has been taken into custody by French officials and will be charged with grand larceny, as well as several charges against France and Russia, and tax evasion,” Harvey tells them. “He will be spending at least the next five years in prison. I hear the prosecution is trying to charge him with the deaths of several of the Russian guards. With that being said, the Russians can't get to him and it's up to France to deal with him now.”

“And the diamonds?” Niall asks.

“The Russians have been promised the diamonds, but after they're used as evidence,” Harvey answers. “Masha Boykov is in custody as well, charged with multiple counts of espionage. She'll spend quite a lot of time in prison.”

Niall grimaces at that. Liam silently pats him on the back. “And we're free to go?”

Harvey nods. “I'd like to thank you for your help.”

“Didn't have much of a choice,” Louis mutters.

“Now, you can go. Please try to stay out of trouble.”

“Fucking thank god,” Zayn says, immediately turning to the car and getting in.

Louis turns toward the car, but stops when Harvey says, “Tomlinson, can I speak to you for a moment?”

Turning around slowly, he nods. Harvey has already taken a couple steps toward the jet and when he starts to walk over, Liam meets his eye, silently telling him they'll be ready if they need to be. Louis gives him a small wave.

“I'd assume you'd want to speak to Niall,” he comments, stopping next to Harvey.

“My business with Horan is done for now,” Harvey replies, turning to him. “I wanted to talk about what happened three years ago with Melvin Howard.”

Brow furrowing, Louis asks, “Are you going to tell me about the deal in the park?”

“Interpol has been aware of you, Tomlinson, for a lot longer than Brazil,” Harvey says ominously. “You got on the radar with the stunt you and Mr. Malik pulled right here in Paris.”

Louis doesn't remember much about that job, has tried to block out most of it because he'd rather not be reminded of accidentally killing his best mate's girlfriend, so it takes him a second to remember why that would have gotten Interpol interested.

They had been targeting a corrupt politician at the time who they'd found out was money laundering and accepting bribes from the head of the municipal police, but they were only after his money. True it was a lot of money they were getting out of it and a rare artifact from some Chinese dynasty that Zayn wanted, but he doesn't see how that got on Interpol's radar.

“It doesn't matter how,” Harvey says like he can read Louis' mind. “But back then, I was new and I had been assigned the job of keeping up with you. Making sure you didn't do anything other than steal from rich, corrupt people. I didn't think you were a problem. You weren't all that dangerous and I was able to find out that you gave a lot of the money you stole to some charities.”

“They basically forgot about you, didn't care to follow what you were doing and I was promoted a couple of times and I was in a position to help when an intern I assigned to keep tabs on you told me what was happening with Howard,” Harvey says. He takes a breath, scratching at his jaw. “By this time I knew Horan and I figured you'd be in good hands, but then we found out you were actually working with him and I couldn't just sit back.”

“You basically gave me an anonymous tip telling me not to trust anyone,” Louis says. “You couldn't have just told me then?” 

“Would have been too easy,” he smiles. “Besides you are a criminal. I can't really be caught helping you.” 

Louis pulls of the aviators, folding them and sticking them in the inside pocket of his coat. “You're talking to me now.”

Harvey ignores what he's said. “Anyway, I helped fake your death. My assistant of sorts and I are the only ones who know you're alive, Tomlinson.”

“What's you point?”

“I respect you, Tomlinson,” he says. “You're a smart man, got good instincts. Brilliant actor.”

Louis eyes him suspiciously as speaks. Something about this seems off to him. Harvey is either about to kill him or ask him for something and he's not sure he likes either of those options.

“I saved your life,” Harvey says, “You owe me. I have a favor to cash in.” 

Ah, there it is.

“What? Trying to recruit me?” he questions. “Like you've practically done with Niall?” 

Harvey shrugs. “All I'm saying is if you did you wouldn't have to worry about us.” 

“Somehow I doubt that,” he scoffs. “Someone once told me not to trust anyone.” 

“I'll give you that, but, uh.” He cuts off, reaching into the inside of his jacket and pulling out a folder. “Just give this a look would you? Maybe Malik and Payne could get involved too.” 

“And not Niall?” 

“Maybe, but he's got another thing.” Louis accepts the folder, briefly flipping through it's contents, but not taking in anything. “I have listed in there my personal phone. This would, of course, be done without the knowledge of my superiors.”

Louis hums, closing the folder. “I'll look at it, but I can't promise you anything.” 

“That's all I ask. Now, I have to go.”

Harvey starts walking toward the jet. When he gets to the stairs that lead up to the door, Louis calls out, “You don't work in Lyon?” 

Harvey stops, tilting his head. “Nah, I work in the London headquarters,” he calls back. “But rumor has it I'm about to be promoted again.” 

Louis doesn't respond, watches as Harvey disappears into the jet. He puts the folder inside his coat, pulls out the aviators and puts them back on.

This is something he'll need to talk to Niall about. He doesn't think it's safe to say yes, but it's not exactly safe to say no either. These people have the ability to have him arrested and he doesn't want to take his chances. He likes having his freedom, but there's got to be a reason why Niall is doing it.

Walking back to the car he makes a mental note to remember to ask Niall about it.

**

“Well, Claire's asleep,” Harry says, coming out of the second bedroom in their suite. They'd move to a hotel after deciding to stay in Paris a couple more days before returning home since they couldn't stay at the safe house. “Took forever, but it was still quicker than last night,” he adds, sitting next to Louis on the sofa and curling up to him.

Louis puts his arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer. “What are you talking about? I put her to bed last night.”

“Still didn't take as long,” Harry retorts, straining his neck to peck Louis on the cheek.

Across from them, Zayn rolls his eyes. “I picked the wrong suite to hang out in tonight,” he adds. “You two are being disgustingly domestic.”

“Hey,” Harry draws out. “We're allowed to be. Don't make fun 'cause you're just jealous.”

“I'm really not.”

“Don't listen to him, Hazza,” Louis says, patting him on the arm. “He's most definitely jealous. You can tell by the way he's trying to hold back is smile.”

Zayn's response is exaggerating a frown, then sticking his tongue out.

“Not to bring down the mood,” Liam says, opening his left eye. It's been close to an hour since he's spoken or moved and Louis had thought he'd fallen asleep. “But what are you planning on doing with Claire?”

Louis shifts uncomfortably. He knows what they're going to do, what they _have_ to do, but they've not discusses it all. He's not had the heart to bring it up to Harry because he's grown so attached to her. It's one of the reasons he agreed to stay in Paris for a couple more days. He didn't have the heart to separate them, though he realizes now it's just prolonging the inevitable an making it worse.

Before he has a chance to speak, Harry's answering, tone a mixture of disappointment and wistful. “We're going to take her to the orphanage tomorrow.”

Liam sits up in his seat, eyes wide. “What? Seriously? No. She loves you two to death,” he argues. “I like her,” he adds with a frown.

“Well, sorry, Payno,” Louis says, extracting himself from Harry and sitting up. “It's not like we've got any other options.”

“Why don't you just adopt her?” Zayn inquires, waving a hand around. “It's not like she doesn't like you two.” 

“It's well out of the range of options, Zayn, and you know it,” he replies. “We can't raise children in this world. It's too dangerous and I won't do it.”

Zayn frowns. “Do you really want to drop her off at an orphanage, Louis? Watch her cry as you walk away from her?”

“Hey!” Louis jumps up, pointing down at him. “That's not fair. Don't do that. It's not like I want that to happen, but I don't have any other choice. Keeping her in my life is dangerous for her and for me. I won't do it.”

“You said the same thing about Harry,” Zayn points out. “The two you have been fine.”

Speaking of Harry, he's been too quiet. Louis glances down at him. He's sitting on the edge of the sofa, arms rested on his thighs, head bent. He knew Harry wasn't too receptive to the idea, it's probably one of the reasons he put off having this conversation, but Harry knew. They've had the discussion before, there's no way Harry wouldn't have known.

“That's different,” he says eventually, turning back to Zayn. “Harry's an adult. He's more than capable of taking care of himself and, yet, I still worry about him nonstop and it nearly kills me. I don't think I can handle a child because children cannot take care of themselves like that. And Claire's all ready been through so much.”

“So taking her away from the two people who saved her and have taken care of her and that she has bonded with is going to be better for her?”

Louis groans, running a hand down his face. “You're completely missing the point, Zayn.”

“I don't think I am.”

“What point is he missing?” Niall asks as he slips through the door that connects their suites with a beer bottle in hand.

“I made the mistake of asking what they were going to do with Claire,” Liam tells him.

“Oh,” Niall lets out. “That's easy,” he adds, plopping down next to Zayn. “Just adopt her.” 

Louis lets out a loud growl, rolling his eyes. “ _We can't do that_ ,” he tells them.

“Why?” Niall questions, taking a sip of his beer. “Because you think it will be too dangerous? Because you said the same thing about Harry, but he's here. I don't see a problem.”

Louis bites the inside of his cheek, ignoring the fact that Harry still hasn't said anything.

“That's what I said,” Zayn tells Niall. “I think he's being stupid and it's clear Harry disagrees with him. Look.”

Zayn motions to Harry, whose head pops up, mouth open and eyes wide. “I mean, it's not like-. I don't think-. Lou, he's-. I, uh-.”

“Stop before you hurt yourself,” Louis says to Harry.

It's clear he disagrees, but he did agree years ago that they couldn't do it. That if they were going to be together they would never have children. Louis knew that letting Harry get close to Claire was a mistake. Of course, Louis has gotten close to her too, not that he's going to admit that because then they'd really start on him. Even if they did decide to adopt her there's no way in hell any adoption agency would let the two of them do it. 

“No, Lou,” Harry says, looking up at him. “Look, I understand why you don't want to do this. I always have understood that and it's a good point, but you can't make the decision all by yourself.”

“I'm not making the decision all by myself,” Louis argues. “If you forget we agreed years ago this was never going to happen. Don't try to make me out as the bad guy.”

Zayn mutters “You are technically the bad guy.”

Harry shoots Zayn and glare then turns back to Louis. “I know I agreed then, but I'm saying the situation has changed.”

“How? How has it changed, Harry? Because I don't see how it has.”

“She literally watched both her parents die in front of her because they were shot.”

“Yes and I don't think her watching us die in front of her because we were shot is good for her either,” Louis fires back.

Niall clears his throat. “Can I interrupt for a second?” When they don't say anything, only turning to him in silence, he continues. “I think everyone in this room understands the risks, Louis, but isn't that what life is about? Taking risks?”

“Not this kind,” Louis grits out. “Not taking risks with a child's life.”

“That's not what I was saying,” Niall says with a frown. “Look, you're right. People could use her against you. You could lose her and she could lose you both, but that could happen to anyone. You could just as easily die in a car wreck or plane crash or just getting your fucking groceries. She could too for that matter. And I think there's more of a risk of that happening than someone coming after her. And I think as long as you provide her with a good life, everything she needs and more and love her she'll be fine. You'd make great parents and it's being wasted. She needs a home. She needs a _family_. And you can provide her with that.”

Niall...has a point.

Louis sighs, sitting back down next to Harry. He squeezes his eyes shut, dropping his head into his hands, feels Harry run a hand over his back. “I know,” he breathes out. “Okay, I know. Everything you're saying, I know that.” He looks back up. Niall and Zayn are watching him with serious expressions. Liam's gotten his laptop out. “But I don't want to be responsible for fucking her up somehow or for her getting hurt.”

“Louis, most parents feel that way,” Zayn tells him. Louis wants to ask how Zayn knows that, but then he remembers when he was a child his mum said something similar to him. Zayn's mum must have too. “Niall's right. She's better off with the two of you than she is in an orphanage. She deserves to have a better life than that.”

“Even if we did decide,” he starts letting Harry take his hand, “there's no way we'd be allowed.”

“That's why you don't do it legally,” Liam says, looking up from his laptop. “I can have proper paperwork and identification for you by the time we leave France.”

“Hang on,” Louis says, holding his free hand up. “Do Haz and I not get to discuss this privately? Are you making the decision for us?”

“Just letting you know I'm here,” Liam smiles.

Louis turns. Harry's smiling hopefully at him with bright eyes and even if Louis didn't want this too it'd be hard for him to tell Harry no. But Louis does want this, more than he's wanted most anything in his life, and if there's even a small chance that it'll work out he's willing to try.

Smiling, Louis asks him, “What do you say? Ready to be a parent?”

Harry watches him intently. “Are you sure? Because a couple minutes ago you looked like you were about to kill Zayn.”

“I always want to kill Zayn,” he retorts. 

“Louis.”

“I know. I know,” he says. “But this isn't like a last minute decision for me or whatever you think it is. I want this just as much as you do. I'm scared, though. All the reasons we talked about years ago are still there. There's nothing I can about that, but I want to be a father. I always have. I want to be a parent with you. And we'll be amazing parents. I can't possibly know what's going to happen tomorrow or a week from now or three years. But of that I am sure. We'll be amazing parents.”

Harry's eyes are a bit watery and he hears Niall sniffle. 

“Well, lads,” Liam starts, gaining there attention. He's holding his arms out with a smile. “What do you want me to do?”

“Do it,” they both say at the same time, earning a loud “whoop” from Niall, which Harry immediately chastises him for because he could've woken up Claire.

It dissolves into a conversation about how Niall's going to take her shopping for clothes because “she deserves to have some pretty shit from Chanel after what she's been through”. Louis' not sure sure if Chanel has clothes for six year old's, but he lets Niall and Harry move on to argue about whether or not he will be Uncle Niall . And as Zayn watches him with a proud tilt to his mouth and Liam types away he can't help but feel an overwhelming amount of joy.

**

**Two days later**

Niall's taking Claire out soon and when they get back they've got to go to the airport, but Louis needs to talk to him, which is why he's been waiting in Niall's room while Niall showers. Niall sings in the shower and he wonders how he went this long not knowing. He wonders how he went this long not knowing Niall _could sing_. He just prays to god Niall doesn't come out of the bathroom naked. Louis doesn't want to see that.

Thankfully, Niall comes out with a towel wrapped around his waist, hair stuck to his forehead and a frown when he sees Louis perched on the end of his bed. 

“Louis, what are you doing?” he asks, grabbing his bag and riffling through it.

“Just came to talk,” he says nonchalantly. “Why? Worried I'd take the piss for your singing in there?”

Niall frowns harder. “I'm about to drop the towel, either look away or watch. I don't care.”

Louis purses his lips, but closes his eyes. “Why're you being so grouchy?”

“Because I know why you're here,” he hears Niall reply. “You're going to ask me about Masha. And I don't want to talk about it.”

Well, that's not the whole reason he's here. It's not everything he wants to talk about. Granted, he was going to lead with it. Still, he's not that transparent.

“I was,” he replies. “But only because you're my friend and I want to know that you're okay. _Are you okay?_ ”

“There's not anything to talk about. I might have loved her and she's going to prison now. What else do you want from me?” Niall inquires. “Oh, you can open your eyes now,” he adds in a hiss.

He may say that, but Louis still opens his eyes hesitantly. Niall's got skinny jeans on now, a bit of his pants coming out at the top as he dries off his hair with the towel. “You might have loved her?”

Niall stops drying his hair off and sighs, coming to sit next to Louis on the bed, setting the towel on his lap. “I did. Happy?”

“Are you okay?” 

“I'll get over it,” he shrugs.

“Will you? Because I said the same thing about Harry.”

Niall shakes his head. “This is different, though. In your situation you were the one that betrayed him.”

“Well, have you tried talking to Harry?”

“Jesus Christ,” Niall mutters, standing back up and turning to him. “Talk to Harry? Why?” he asks, throwing his arms out, the towel billowing in the air. “So he can just ramble about how you hurt him, but he loved you anyway and now you're adopting a little girl? Not exactly how this is going to play out for me.”

If it were possible Louis would go back in time approximately six second and not say that because clearly that was the wrong thing to say.

“In case you missed it,” Niall continues, tossing the towel onto the chair in the corner, “she's a Russian spy and is facing a considerate amount of jail time. And at least you loved Harry back. Now I have no idea how to feel because I don't know if she was playing me or not.”

Louis bites his lip, watching Niall pace about the room. “So _no_. I don't think I will talk to Harry because it's not the same thing. I will, however, go about my life the way I want to, which means not talking about this and trying to push it away and if that means taking Claire out to get clothes I will. And when I say I'm fine, whether I'm lying or not, just say okay and drop it.”

On one hand, Louis doesn't think that's the healthiest thing to do, but he's not one to judge or lecture because _he_ stayed out of England for five years to avoid thinking about Harry. But he's never seen Niall get this upset an worked up before and maybe what Niall needs is to be left alone about it and to be able to deal with it in his way.

And if his way is taking Claire out and buying her clothes Louis' not going to complain. (Although, he is a little concerned about how much Niall knows about buying a little girl clothes. He just hopes it ends up okay.)

“Okay, I'll drop it,” he says simply.

Niall blinks at him once. “Seriously?”

“Yes,” he nods.

“But, uh, what if I did want to talk about it?” Niall asks carefully, not meeting Louis' eyes. “You'd let me talk about it, right?”

Niall's discomfort here is making him a lot more likeable to Louis, not that Louis didn't all ready like him. It's just that most of the time Niall comes off as someone who is never bothered by anything. At times, Louis' even questioned Niall's ability to feel emotion like a normal human, had chalked it up to how he was raised and what he did for so long. This outburst, followed by his asking for permission to talk about it, only leads Louis to believe it even more.

He doesn't know how to deal with it, was probably never taught how to deal with any emotion other than to turn them off completely for him to be able to do his job. It's probably why he's gone so long not letting himself feel anything more than physical attraction to another person. It's probably why he had no issue saying those things to Louis. 

Louis could have this completely wrong this, but he's pretty sure he's right and Niall's here asking his friend if it's okay for him to talk about this. It's breaking his heart.

“Whenever you need to I'm only a phone call and maybe a jet away,” he says.

The tension in Niall's body seems to seep out of him then. “I'm sorry, Louis,” he says, sitting next to him again. “I just-. I don't know. I don't how I feel about it. I don't know how I should feel about it. And I'm not so sure talking would help.”

“It may not,” Louis admits. “You may just need to think. Be alone and reflect. That's how I usually sort through my feelings. Everyone's different, though. But if and when you want to talk I'll talk. Harry'd be good too, only because he's a good listener. Zayn as well. Not Liam, though. He's shit at relationships.”

Niall lets out a laugh at that. “Think I might just try the not talking about it for a while thing,” he says. “Thanks, though, Lou.”

“Not a problem.”

Niall gets up, going back to his bag. He pulls out a black tee and puts it on. “I will get over it, though,” he says. “Just not sure how long it'll be.”

“I've got faith in you,” Louis replies. Sensing the end of the conversation, he says, “So, about your guy at Interpol.”

Niall cocks an eyebrow, bending over to pull black socks out of his bag. “Harvey? He's got a name you know.” 

“Yeah, that,” Louis says, waving a dismissive hand. Niall grabs his shoes and goes to the chair in the corner. “He gave me some sort of offer yesterday. Like the one you have, I think.”

Niall looks up at him from where he's pulling on a sock. “Really?”

“Yeah, said something about how I owe him, which is bull because he did that because he owed you, but he gave me a folder. I haven't looked at it, don't plan on it, but I'm a bit concerned about turning him down. And I wanted to know what you think.”

Sitting up straight, he shrugs. “It's dangerous either way, mate. I mean, if you say yes at least you've got an easier chance of noticing something wrong. You know, what's that saying?” He bends over, pulling his other sock on with one hand, waving the other around. “Keep your friends closer, but your enemies closer, blah blah blah.”

“I don't think I want to, though. Like I think for a while now I'd rather just stay with Harry and Claire. I'm pretty sure I'm going to say no.”

“Seriously?” Niall asks him. “You're going to say no?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Louis watches as Niall frowns, thinks back to how Niall hasn't wanted to discuss whatever agreement he has with Harvey, how he's been jumpy over the whole situation. As far as Louis can tell, Niall has had no reason to agree to a deal like this, unless.... Narrowing his eyes, he asks, “What do they have on you?”

“Nothing, Lou,” Niall tells him. 

Louis doesn't believe that. Harvey obviously knows Niall and what he does and there's a good chance he's blackmailing Niall into doing his dirty work for him. Harvey probably has evidence against Niall and threatened to arrest him if Niall didn't agree to this arrangement.

But if Niall doesn't want to talk about it, he'll let it go.

“It's these people, they're law officials,” Niall continues. “And they know you and because they know you they know Harry and they'll know Claire. Working for them or with them or whatever is risky. We cant trust them, but telling them no. That's not good either.”

Thinking about it, Niall raises a good point. At least if Louis were working for them it'd be under the agreement they didn't arrest him. His major concern, though, is that this trip to Paris is by far the most dangerous thing he's ever done and it was something Interpol handed over to Niall to do. If this is a glimpse into the sort of things they'd have Louis doing he doesn't want to. It's too dangerous. And god only knows what would happen if he failed at whatever job Harvey gave him.

He'd rather take his chances telling Harvey no than to deal with whatever international espionage case is thrown at him. True, he could be risking his freedom and leaving Harry and Claire without him, but saying no is upping his chances of staying alive.

“I'm gonna say no,” he says, standing.

Niall's pulling on a red and blue plaid shirt. He leaves it unbuttoned over his black tee. “Suit yourself.”

“Don't feed her chocolate,” Louis warns him, hoping Niall doesn't notice or call out the abrupt subject change.

“I've got to be the cool uncle somehow,” Niall argues.

“You're buying her clothes,” Louis points out, following Niall out of the room. “That's more than the others have done.”

“But Zayn's got the art thing,” Niall argues.

“Yes, but what does Liam have? Nothing.”

“Hey!” he hears Liam shout as they walk through the suite.

Louis ignores him, instead takes Niall by the elbow and pulls him in. “Look, Horan, I'm trying to be the cool dad that gives her chocolate. I don't need a boisterous, Irish uncle swooping in with his chocolate and taking the only thing I've got going for me.”

Niall snorts out a laugh. “Trust me, Louis,” he begins, pulling his arm free, “it's not the only thing you've got going for you.”

“You're damn right,” Louis agrees with an over exaggerated nod.

It's not until Niall is out of the room that he realizes he doesn't know what Niall meant.

**

He's not going to do it. He doesn't want to, it won't be beneficial to him and now he's got to think about Harry _and_ Claire. If Agent Harvey decides to come after him...actually, now that he thinks about it, no. Harvey said it would have to be kept quiet like how Niall working for him is kept quiet, so he assumes that means Harvey doesn't have permission to seek help from criminals. Which would also mean that he could get in trouble for it and that trouble could mean losing his job.

And that means he can't go to his bosses at Interpol if Louis turns him down. The only thing Harvey could actually do is arrest Louis himself, claiming he made the shocking discovery that Louis Tomlinson was still alive. But Louis can come up with more than enough proof that Harvey helped faked his death. There's no way that Harvey will come after Louis for turning the deal down.

There's hope that he won't at least, so Louis tosses the folder into his suitcase, covers it up with his clothes as he packs them. Niall's still out with Claire, but they'll be back soon and he's anxious to get out of Paris and get home so he start this new chapter in his life. 

They've still not told Claire they're adopting her yet. She does know she's going with them, something she seemed more than excited about, which warmed his heart and released a lot of apprehension. He's had some fear that she'd not want them to adopt her, not that she'd fully know the meaning of it or how it'd benefit, but it was still something he's been afraid of.

Harry doesn't seem to have that fear. He'd told Louis that it was obvious that Claire liked them, not that it would matter if she didn't because it's not like she had any other family. Louis thought that sounded a bit harsh, but Harry is right. Regardless of how Claire feels about them she still needs a family. She needs people to take care of her and they're going to be the ones to do it.

Deep down he knows he's being stupid. Claire took to Harry immediately and it hadn't taken her long to warm up to him either. And while she has taken to the lads, she still runs to either him or Harry when she's upset, scared, tired, or hungry. _She likes them_.

He hears Harry come in and it's a few seconds before he feels him wrap his arms around him from behind. “Do you really think adopting Claire is a good idea or were you just agreeing for me?” he asks, placing a kiss just under Louis' ear.

“What makes you think I would do that?” he replies, turning in Harry's arms. “Because I was quite set on it being a horrific idea?” He pauses, shaking his head. “Nah. Deep down I knew I wanted this as much as you. I'm just worried is all.”

“Are you sure it's a good idea, though?”

“What, having second thoughts, Styles?” When Harry only frowns down at him, Louis slowly drops his smile. “Harry, what's wrong?”

Harry lets go, dropping his arms to his side. “It's just, you were so sure it was a bad idea and then you just changed your mind and I thought maybe that it was because you thought I was pushing you.”

“Harry,” he says, snorting out a laugh. “You weren't pushing me. You really hadn't even said anything. Could I tell that's what you wanted? Yes, but you didn't pressure me into changing my mind. Why would you think that?”

“Because you said-.” He cuts himself off, running a hand through his hair. “Because you said if I really wanted children I should find someone else to be with because you were never going to agree with it. I dunno. I guess I was just worried that you thought I actually would leave you and I-.”

“Harry, Harry, stop,” Louis says, going over to him and grabbing his wrists so he stops pulling at his hair. “That's not what this is and I should never had said that to you because I didn't mean it. I didn't – _don't_ – want you to leave me, but I thought that was the only way to get my point across to you. And I didn't think you were going to.”

“You changed your mind, though,” Harry points out, taking his hands away. “Why?”

Louis sighs, takes a few steps back and sits on the bed. “Because I want this,” he admits. “I always have. It's been eating at me for months, but I thought there was no way we could pull it off. I thought it'd be too dangerous. Too difficult, but raising a child will be difficult no matter. And yeah, it's a bit more dangerous, but you've been okay.”

He pauses, watching as the tension in Harry's body visibly leaves. “We both want this, Haz, and I'm not going to stop us from having it. She's a great kid and she has no family and we can give her that. We can give her that and so much more.”

“Are you going to still work?”

He's been expecting the question since the moment he agreed to adopt Claire, has spent a lot of time thinking about it and he still doesn't have much an answer.

Quitting isn't something he wants to do and he doesn't think he can no matter how better of them safety wise it would be. And even if he did quit he's still made a lot of enemies that could pop up at anytime regardless of him working or not.

It's not like he can have a regular job and sure they've got more than enough money. They certainly don't need any of what Louis would bring home, but he needs something to do, needs something to fill his time. Without going on a job every now and then he'll be more prone to dying of boredom, especially since Claire will be in school.

He knows he won't do anything too involved or dangerous. He'll mostly do simple jobs, like scamming a CEO or any other rich fool he can find, but he definitely won't get himself involved in anymore international political issues.

But he definitely can't stop and he knows Harry won't ask him to. He just doesn't know how much he will work, doesn't know how often or how long those jobs will take him away for. He certainly doesn't want to leave Harry alone raising a child for the next twelve years. He wants to be there for Claire and for Harry and for himself.

“All I can say,” he begins, “is that I'm not sure I can stop completely, but I can cut back. I will cut back. I just-. I can't stop completely.”

“I understand,” Harry tells him, nodding. “We can make it work.”

“We can,” Louis agrees. “Are you okay now?”

Harry smiles. “Of course, I just wanted to make sure you weren't just doing this for me.”

Louis starts to reply, but Claire comes running into the room, jumping into his lap. He quickly wraps his arms around her so she won't fall. “What did we say about running in doors?” he asks.

“Not to do it,” she answers, blinking innocently up at him. 

“Then why are you, Miss Claire?”

“Uncle Niall bought me a ton of pretty clothes,” she starts, squirming around in his lap, “and they're all packed. So I'm ready to go.” 

Louis smiles down at her. “Is that so? In a hurry are we?”

Claire gives him an exaggerated nod. “Yup. Never been on a plane before.”

“Are you about ready?”

Louis glances over at Harry, then to his open suitcase. “Just need to finish up. Shouldn't be more than five minutes.”

“Okay, Claire,” Harry starts, walking over to them, “do you think you can go put your coat on and we can take your stuff down to the car?”

Claire nods, hops off Louis' lap and starts to run toward the door, but Harry grabs her gently by the arm. When she looks up at him, he cocks his eyebrow and purses his lips. “What'd we just say about running?”

She blushes, ducking her head. “Sorry,” she squeaks out. 

“Just slow down, yeah?” Harry lets her go and she nods. When she realizes she can leave the room, she does so, this time walking.

Louis pushes himself up and goes to stand next to Harry. “I'll see you in the car?”

“Yeah.” Harry pecks a kiss to his mouth, reaching down and squeezing his hand. “Can't wait to be at home.”

“Dog's going to love her.”

Harry blanches. “What if she doesn't? What if she's upset that we brought in another child? What if she tries to eat Claire?”

“What are you-.” Louis cuts himself off, squinting up at Harry. “ _Dog will be fine_. She loves people and Claire is down on her level. They can chase each other around the garden. They'll be fine.”

Blinking, Harry shakes his head at himself. “You're right, sorry. I don't know what's happening to me.”

“You're becoming a parent, I think,” Louis tells him, rubbing a hand up and down Harry's arm. “Get used to.”

“I don't like it,” Harry pouts.

“Yes you do,” Louis smiles. “And if you don't go now Claire is going come running back in here and drag you out.”

Harry smiles, kisses him again, and starts toward the door. “Love you!” he calls as he's disappearing into the other room.

Louis rolls his eyes, calling back, “I love you more!”

He doesn't get a reply, doesn't expect one, and he goes to finish his packing.

When he's done, he starts to close his suitcase, but stops himself, letting it falling back open. He rummages around in it, finds the folder Harvey gave and takes it out, sitting it to the side so he can close the suitcase. When he's finished and has pulled his coat on, he grabs his backpack.

He starts out of the room, backpack and suitcase in hand, but stops in the door way, glancing back to the bed. Letting out a sigh, he lets go of the suitcase handle and walks back to the bed. He grabs the folder and puts it in his back pack so he can look over it on the plane.

**Author's Note:**

> [thoughtlessblogger](http://www.thoughtlessblogger.tumblr.com)


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